400,000 b/d output to return earlier than expected, Russia's LUKOIL owns a 75% stake in the field
Baghdad, March 10 - Neftegaz.RU. Iraq's 400,000
barrel/day West Qurna 2 oil field returned from maintenance March 8 and is expected to be back at full capacity within hours, a Basra Oil Co. official told S&P Global
Commodity Insights, bringing back almost 10% of the country's crude production.
The official said:
- Maintenance operations ended 8 am and it went back online
-
We are hoping to get it back online to 400,000 b/d by the end of the day
West Qurna 2 was shuttered on February 21 for maintenance that was expected to last for a month, Iraqi officials had previously told S&P Global.
The giant field, located in southern Iraq, is operated by
Russian oil company LUKOIL, which owns a 75% stake.
It has announced plans to expand production there to a peak of 800,000 b/d by 2027.
The rest of the field is held by
Iraq's state-owned North Oil Co.
Iraqi officials have not addressed questions about whether LUKOIL's ownership stake would be jeopardized by the severe Western sanctions imposed on Russia's financial sector over the invasion of Ukraine.
LUKOIL had considered selling its stake in 2021, but Iraqi authorities dissuaded the company from
exiting the country.
Iraq as a whole pumped 4.26 million b/d of crude oil in January, according to the latest S&P Global survey of
OPEC+ output.
