Majnoon oilfield deal is finalised

Several of the world's biggest oilfield services companies are preparing to work on the giant Majnoon oilfield in Iraq. Companies including Halliburton, Nabors and possibly Petrofac are finalising contracts to help Royal Dutch Shell and Malaysia's state-owned Petroliam Natsional (Petronas) boost the field's production capacity to 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) from its current output of just under 45,000 bpd.

"These contracts are part of implementing the preliminary plan to develop Majnoon oilfield for the next two years," an Iraqi official said. Yesterday, Halliburton, which is headquartered in Houston and Dubai, said it had received a letter of intent from Shell for the development of Majnoon in affiliation with the US company Nabors and the state-owned Iraq Drilling Company. It said the contract was subject to final approval by Iraqi authorities.

"Halliburton has made a sizeable investment in Iraq and we look forward to providing services to Shell and the consortium in order to increase production at this historic oilfield," said Dave Lesar, the chairman, president and chief executive of Halliburton. The Iraqi official said the deal could be worth up to US$150 million (Dh550.9m) and would involve drilling 15 wells over the next two years. He said a second contract had been awarded to the UK-based Petrofac to build two plants, each with a capacity of 50,000 bpd, to process oil from Majnoon. The construction project would take 18 months, he estimated.

Petrofac declined to confirm the contract. "The reports are merely speculation," a spokesman said. Majnoon, with reserves estimated at 12.6 billion barrels, is among the world's biggest oilfields. It is one of a cluster of giant fields located in southeastern Iraq's Basra province, near the country's oil export terminal on the Gulf. Last December, Shell and Petronas won a 20-year contract to develop the field in Iraq's second post-war auction of oil licences.

tcarlisle@thenational.ae

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Analysis

Maros Sefcovic is juggling multiple international trade agreement files, but his message was clear when he spoke to The National on Wednesday.

The EU-UAE bilateral trade deal will be finalised soon, he said. It is in everyone’s interests to do so. Both sides want to move quickly and are in alignment. He said the UAE is a very important partner for the EU. It’s full speed ahead - and with some lofty ambitions - on the road to a free trade agreement.

We also talked about US-EU tariffs. He answered that both sides need to talk more and more often, but he is prepared to defend Europe's position and said diplomacy should be a guiding principle through the current moment.