Turkey's TPAO Signs Drilling Deal in Southern Iraq

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO), Turkey's state-owned oil company, has signed a $350 million agreement to drill 40 oil wells in Iraq's southern Basra area. The company is also in talks with Baghdad to drill 7,000 oil wells across Iraq, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said on Friday. "We continue to work with the central government on opening 7,000 wells across Iraq as a whole," he said in a televised press conference.

Iraq, which overtook Iran in June as the largest producer behind Saudi Arabia in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, is reviving its energy industry nine years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. Royal Dutch Shell Plc (NYSE:RDS.A) (The Hague, Netherlands), OAO Lukoil (Moscow, Russia) and other investors are helping to boost output at southern oil fields, and the government sees exports rising since it ended an impasse with northern Iraq's self-ruled Kurds. The Iraqi Oil Ministry has signed 19 contracts with Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) (Houston, Texas), Total S.A. (NYSE:TOT) (Paris, France) and other international oil companies since 2003.

International Energy Agency (IEA), the Paris-based energy watchdog of developed countries, forecasted that Iraq's oil production will double by 2020. The IEA said Iraq's production could reach 6.1 million barrels per day by 2020, from about 3 million barrels per day currently. For additional information, see October 11, 2012, article - Iraqi Oil Production Could Double to 6.1 Million Barrels in 2020, IEA Says.

Iraq holds the world's fifth-largest crude reserves, according to BP Energy Statistical Yearbook, and is developing them ahead of schedule. It raised output capacity to 3.4 million barrels per day in September, four months faster than planned, Abdel Ilah Qassem, adviser to Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs Hussain al-Shahristani, said in October 24, according to Bloomberg News.

Iraqi Kurdistan said it had agreed to raise exports to 250,000 barrels per day in 2013, if Baghdad pays operators in the autonomous region. Turkey's growing energy involvement in Iraq comes despite tensions with Baghdad over Ankara harboring Iraq's fugitive Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, who was sentenced to death by an Iraqi court for the second time last Thursday.

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