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Iraq to be biggest global oil supplier

Oil&Gas Materials 26 April 2012 16:54 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, April 26 / Trend A. Taghiyeva /

After the Russian Lukoil starts working on the Iraqi West Qurna-2 field, it will become a major oil exporter for world markets, Iraqi Oil Ministry representative Asym Jihad told Trend today.

"West Qurna-2 has reserves worth 13 billion barrels of oil," he said.

"The development of this field will turn Iraq into a major oil supplier."

He said about 500,000 barrels of oil per day will be extracted at this field initially, that is, until 2014. It is planned to drill 23 wells within the first phase of the West Qurna-2 field's development.

"Drilling the first well has been recently begun," he said. "It will be drilled to a depth of 5,000 meters."

He also stressed that the total volume of investments in the West Qurna-2 project will hit about $25 billion.

The field is located in the province of Basra in the south of the country. Iraq and Lukoil concluded the agreement on its development on March 22, 2012.

Lukoil (75 percent) is the operator of the project. The North Oil company (25 percent) participates in the project from the Iraqi side.

According to BP, Iraq's proven oil reserves as of early 2011 amounted to 115 billion barrels. The country ranks third in OPEC after Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Earlier, spokesman for the Iraqi Oil Ministry told Trend that the country plans to extract more than 3.42 million barrels of oil per day in 2012. About 2 - 2.5 million barrels will be exported.

The major oil fields of Iraq are Rumaila, Zubair, Nahr Umr, Majnoon and West Qurna in south of the country.

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