Total E&P expects: Iraq’s Halfaya output seen at 535,000 bpd by 2016, Iraq oil exports surge to 1.9mbpd

Crude oil production from Iraq’s Halfaya oilfield will hit 535,000 barrels per day (bpd) by 2016, from 3,000 bpd now, a senior executive of French oil major Total , which is associated with the field, said on Monday.

‘In Halfaya, (production) is supposed to go from 3,000 bpd to 535,000 bpd in 6 years-period of time, the plateau is supposed to be reached after 6 years,’ Jean-Jacques Mosconi, head of strategy at Total, told reporters on the sidelines of an industry event.

Earlier this year, Iraq signed a final contract to develop Halfaya with China National Petroleum Company (CNPC), Total and Malaysian state firm Petronas.

Total has an 18.75 percent interest in the consortium.

‘We do not want to keep on this position we have in Halfaya. We (will) do our best to try to expand,’ Mosconi said, adding ‘We are checking the field, the safety…We are sending people.’

The French firm was still ‘in touch’ with Iran about the development of the South Pars natural gas field, Mosconi added.

Mosconi said Total and its partner State oil giant Aramco were on the verge of closing financing deals worth $8 billion to build the 400,000 bpd refinery in Jubail, on the east coast of Saudi Arabia.

‘The project would be completed in March 2013,’ he said.

‘We will begin to have commercial products by the middle of (that) year, everything should be okay by September.’

Mosconi added half of the daily output of Saudi Arabia’s Moneefa oilfield, which is currently under development, would be processed at the Jubail refinery.

Moneefa would pump 900,000 bpd of heavy crude.

Total, under the joint-venture Satorp would be interested in expanding petrochemical output.

The refinery, which is export and domestic oriented will also produce 700,000 tons per year (tpy) of paraxylene, 140,000 tpy of benzene and 200,000 tpy of polymer-grade propylene.

‘If there is a petrochemical extension in Jubail, Total under Satorp is interested to be in it,’ Mosconi said.

He said 30 to 40 percent of the refined products will go to the domestic market.

‘Demand from Asia should be mostly (for) naphtha and LPG but the bulk of the business (is) growing demand coming from the kingdom itself, diesel and gasoline,’ Mosconi said.

Iraq oil exports surge to 1.9mbpd

Iraq’s oil exports rose in May to 1.9 million barrels per day from 1.767 million bpd the month before, the head of the State Oil Marketing Organisation (Somo) said on Tuesday.

Iraq exported an average of 1.460 million bpd from the southern oil hub of Basra and 440,000 bpd from the northern oilfields around Kirkuk, including 10,000 bpd by trucks to Jordan, Somo head Falah Alamri told Reuters.

The average selling price was about $73.70 per barrel.

Iraq’s oil exports in May were expected to exceed 1.9 million barrels per day, recovering from a dip in April caused by bad weather and a bomb attack, the head of the Somo said last month.

Alamri said he expected oil exports to rise over the coming months in excess of 1.9 million barrels per day.

‘If everything moves as planned, we could export more then 1.9 million barrels per day starting next month. Exports will be increased further,’ Alamri told Reuters.

Exports from Basra, Iraq’s main oil-exporting hub, can fluctuate widely due to weather conditions or technical problems, while repeated bomb attacks hampered crude flow from Kirkuk fields in recent months.

The Opec member has signed deals with global oil firms that could boost its output capacity to 12 million bpd in six to seven years’ time from the current 2.5 million bpd.

That would rival top producer Saudi Arabia’s capacity, and is viewed by most industry experts as a highly ambitious target. Iraq hopes the deals will generate the billions of dollars desperately needed to rebuild the economy.