Gazprom Neft Middle East has achieved a production milestone at its Sarqala field located in the Garmian block of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), producing its two-millionth tonne of oil since the start of commercial production four years ago.
The company obtained first oil at the Garmian block in 2011 and began commercial oil shipments in 2015, following the commissioning of the first well at the Sarqala field.
Sarqala-2, the second production well, came on stream last April.
Gazprom Neft has now launched a third well, increasing the total daily production volumes at the field to 35,000 barrels.
The third well has a production capacity of 12,000 barrels per day (bpd). The commissioning of Sarqala-3 has brought the total cumulative production at the field to two million tonnes or more than 15 million barrels of oil.
Gazprom Neft Middle East CEO Sergei Petrov said: “The production of the two-millionth tonne of oil at Sarqala marks a significant point in developing this important and promising asset.
“We’ve made great strides in our four years’ working at the Garmian block, commissioning three wells and putting in place cutting-edge and highly developed infrastructure. In moving into a new phase in developing this field, we already have detailed information on the geological characteristics of the region.
During the course of the development of the field, the firm has added key infrastructure, including a new high-pressure and low-pressure separation processing line, two 17,000-barrel-capacity reservoirs, as well as the reconstruction of the oil-tanker loading systems.
“We already have detailed information on the geological characteristics of the region.”
The expansion of the field infrastructure has created the transportation and storage capacity required to accommodate higher oil production.
Gazprom Neft intends to build a reservoir-water utilisation unit at the Sarqala field this year. The proposed unit will have a throughput capacity of 5,000bpd.
The company is the operator of the Garmian block with a 40% interest. The remaining interest in the block is held by the Government of the KRI (20%) and Canada’s WesternZagros (40%).
