West Qurna-2 field is located in the southern part of Iraq, 65 kilometers north-west of Basra, a major seaport city, and is one of the world's largest fields. The field's initial recoverable reserves come to around 14 billion barrels. More than 90% of the reserves are concentrated in Mishrif and Yamama accumulations.
On December 12, 2009 PJSC LUKOIL was awarded a contract for the development of West Qurna-2 field, one of the world's largest fields. On January 31, 2010, a services contract was signed for the development and production at West Qurna-2. The contract was ratified by the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Iraq.
On March 29, 2014, commercial oil production was commenced at the field.
PROJECT STAKEHOLDERS
LUKOIL (interest — 75%).
North Oil Company (NOC), a state-owned company being a part of the Iraqi Oil Ministry. NOC with a 25% interest is involved in the project jointly with the LUKOIL Group under the contractual terms as one of the project contractors. NOC does not incur any costs receiving only its share (25%) in the remuneration.
South Oil Company (SOC) represents the Iraqi Republic in the project and distribute the project oil.
Progress
In 2019, LUKOIL commenced drilling of new production wells as part of the second development phase. The Сompany concluded contracts to drill 57 production wells, including 54 wells at Mishrif formation and 3 wells at Yamama formation. The drilling campaign will ramp up production at West Qurna-2 from the current level of 400 thousand barrels per day to 480 thousand barrels per day in 2020.
Project's financial scheme
LUKOIL receives the compensation oil as sales proceeds. It is a share in the produced oil based on its price calculated in relation to the global market prices.
The LUKOIL Group’s proceeds are divided into two parts – as compensation of costs to the extent incurred, and as remuneration.
LUKOIL provides funding for all the project costs except for the remuneration tax payable by the parties to the project on their own for their share of remuneration.
Following the compensation of historical losses LUKOIL will obtain compensation of all the costs as a share in oil production.
In addition to the compensation of its costs, LUKOIL receives remuneration in proportion to its interest (75%) of USD 1.15 payable to project parties for each barrel of oil and pays profit tax.
LUKOIL commenced drilling of new production wells at West Qurna-2 field as part of the second development phase.
In May 2018, LUKOIL signed a new development plan that provides for an oil production plateau of 800 thousand barrels per day.
3D seismic survey to update the field’s geological model, both for the discovered formations and prospective horizons.
Development of Mishrif formation.
March: target production rate of 120 thousand bbl/day reached. June: accelerated compensation of costs (the precondition that the production must be maintained at 120 thousand bbl/day for 90 consecutive days was met) commenced. August: drilling of the first horizontal well successfully completed. The first tanker of 1 million barrels of compensation oil was shipped out. The oil was exported to the Group’s ISAB refinery in Italy. This made it possible to achieve significant synergies from vertical integration of the LUKOIL’s upstream and downstream business. By the end of the year, oil production output came to 380 thousand bbl./day, and the stock of production wells that produced oil included 61 wells.
The contract was amended to mitigate project risks: the design peak production was reduced from 1.8 to 1.2 million bbl/year, the contract period extended till 2035.
Contracts were signed with the contractors for construction of surface facilities and commencement of its active development phase. The project interest was increased to 75%.
An agreement was signed with the new Iraqi government till 2030.
PJSC LUKOIL was awarded the field development contract.
The project was frozen due to the UN sanctions against Iraq.
The project contract was signed.
LUKOIL actively involves the local population to construct surface facilities at West Qurna-2 field. At the peak of construction activities the field’s total headcount was more than 11 thousand people, of whom two thirds were represented by the local personnel employed by both international and Iraqi companies (over a dozen major Iraqi subcontractors were engaged in the project).
LUKOIL makes a great effort to improve wellbeing of the local residents. Since the very beginning of the project social issues were treated with special attention, despite the fact that it is not the Company’s contractual obligation. Large-scale social program that LUKOIL has been implementing for a few years already as part of the West Qurna-2 project aims at improving the physical infrastructure of educational, healthcare and sporting institutions.
LUKOIL Mid-East Ltd. (a fully-owned subsidiary of PJSC LUKOIL acting as operator of West Qurna-2 project) created thousands of jobs, hundreds of employees received training at the training center for the Iraqi personnel employed at the West Qurna-2 field in the south of the country. Over the past years the entity has been actively supporting the local communities: it has provided new equipment for schools, purchased computers, arranged for regular supplies of drinking water, constructed sporting facilities, and supplied medical equipment.
Since 2012, the entity has been making an effort to supply equipment to the healthcare clinics of Madain district where West Qurna-2 field is located. This provided an opportunity for the population to obtain qualified medical care close to their point of residence. State-of-the-art equipment of leading global manufacturers was supplied to the district’s hospitals. The supplied equipment included a cardiograph, an X-Ray unit, dental equipment, an autoclave, and accessories required to transport seriously ill patients.
Every year LUKOIL Mid-East Ltd. provides funding to supply drinking water to Madain schools.
In autumn 2015, LUKOIL Mid-East Ltd. in cooperation with the Dubai branch of LUKOIL International Services B.V. (UAE) and Al-Aun (Iraq) charity foundation conducted a campaign for purchasing and distribution of winter clothes and toys among low-income families and orphans. A total 700 outfits and 200 toys were purchased.
Since the very first year of its operations at West Qurna-2 field LUKOIL Mid-East Ltd. has been active in supporting the development of physical training and sports. This first of all has to do with soccer. Construction of a football pitch was funded by the entity. Now a LUKOIL Cup tournament is regularly held that is joined by more than 50 teams.
