Iraq asks BP to study developing Kirkuk oil fields

Iraq has asked British energy giant BP to draft a study on boosting production in the oil fields of northern Kirkuk province, Oil Minister Jabbar al-Luaybi said Sunday.

Luaybi told AFP he hoped to discuss the proposal with BP’s head, who is due to visit Kirkuk in the coming days.

“I suggested they study my proposal and I am waiting for their reply,” Luaybi said.

In 2014, the oil ministry and BP signed a consultancy deal under which the oil titan would study reserves in the Baba Gurgur and Havana fields and ways of developing them.

But Baghdad lost the Kirkuk fields to Kurdish forces that year during a sweeping offensive by the Islamic State group, and the deal was never implemented.

“Because of IS, it was frozen,” Luaybi said. Iraq signed a new memorandum with BP in January after the federal government took back control of the area.

Baba Gurgur, discovered 1927, is Iraq’s oldest oil field.

Central government forces reseized it from the Kurds in October along with the fields of Havana, Bai Hassan, Jambu and Khabbaz. The five fields have a total output of around 470,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) but production and export have been slow as the main pipeline linking Kirkuk to the Ceyhan oil terminal in Turkey was damaged and needs repairs. (AFP)

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