Gazprom Neft, the operator of the Badra oil field in Iraq, has begun testing well Bd4. After completion of the first stage of experimental work, the well began gushing at a flow rate of 2000 barrels of oil per day.
A total of seven tests are scheduled at the site, six of which will concentrate on the productivity potential of each individual horizon, while the seventh test will look at the combined productivity of them all. The company is planning to complete testing of well Bd4, which has a depth of 4,850 meters, in summer 2013. Afterwards, the company will begin an experimental program at well Bd5, which has already been drilled.
The company is currently building the field infrastructure required to begin production at the field, and a central gathering facility with a total capacity of 170,000 barrels per day. The first line of the central gathering facility, which has a capacity of 60,000 barrels per day, will be commissioned in 2013. The site of a gas collection and processing facility with a capacity of about 1.5 billion cubic meters per year has also been prepared for construction. A 165-kilometer-long oil pipeline is being laid from the Badra oil field to the Garraf pipeline tie-in point. The connection to the oil trunk pipeline system will take place near the city of Nasiriyah.
“Gazprom Neft is actively preparing to launch full-scale production at the Badra oil field in late 2013. The results of well tests will help us better understand the potential of the field’s pay horizons and finalize the Badra field development plan,” said Gazprom Neft First Deputy CEO Vadim Yakovlev .
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Badra oil field is located in Wasit Governorate in Eastern Iraq. According to preliminary estimates, the total oil in place at the Badra field amounts to 3 billion barrels. The contract with the Iraqi government for development of the oil field was signed in January 2010 upon completion of bid process in December 2009. The winning bid was submitted by a consortium of companies consisting of Gazprom Neft, KOGAS (Korea), PETRONAS (Malaysia), and TPAO (Turkey).
Gazprom Neft’s share in the project is 30 percent, while KOGAS has 22.5 percent, PETRONAS has 15 percent, and TPAO has 7.5 percent. The share of the Iraqi government, represented in the project by the Iraqi Oil Exploration Company (OEC), is 25 percent. Gazprom Neft is the project operator.
The project for development of the Badra oil field is designed to last twenty years, with a possible extension of five more years. The volume of capital investment required is estimated at approximately $2 billion. According to contract terms, investors will be compensated for expenses incurred, and will receive payment of $5.50 for each barrel of oil equivalent produced.
The start of production at the field is scheduled for 2013. By 2017, the production volume is forecast to reach 170,000 barrels of oil per day (approximately 8.5 million tonnes per year), and stay at that level for seven years. According to plans, a total of seventeen production wells and five injection wells will be drilled at the oil field.
