Project Profile
Value: Undisclosed
Location: Southern Iraq, 15 km to the north of Basra
Start-up Year: -
Reserves: 20.7 Billion barrels of oil and 19,419,906.7 x 109 cu ft of gas
Production: 70,000 bopd
Nahr Umr field was first delineated by gravity surveys in 1939-41 followed by seismic surveys in 1946-47 and drilled in 1948. Since then, over half a century has passed before any serious plans have been put into action to develop this super giant field. The field is located in southern Iraq, 15 km to the north of Basra and consists of a single anticlinal dome with its long axis extending over 40 km long by 25 km wide.
The structural closure for the various pay zones varies with depth and ranges from 200 metres for the Dammam (Eocene) to about 800 metres for the Lower Cretaceous Yamama reservoir. A total of 13 boreholes have been drilled so far which confirmed the presence of at least 8 pay zones ranging in age from Miocene to Lower Cretaceous with varying API gravity from 19 to 41 degrees. The present reserves in place for Nahr Umr is estimated at 20.7 Billion barrels of oil and 19,419,906.7 x 109 cu ft of gas. In the early eighties, a 15-year plan was designed to develop this super giant field to produce a total of 437,833 bbl/d of oil from Yamama, Zubair and Mishrif reservoirs accompanied by some 1122.31 million cu ft per day of associated gas.
In 2002, Zarubeshneft and Rosneft, two oil companies from the Russian Federation, stated that they were prepared to develop the Nahr Umr field, which they estimated was worth about US$570 billion in total revenues. In March 2009, Total S. A., StatoilHydro, Chevron and a possible fourth Iraqi state-owned oil company were holding negotiations with the Iraqi Ministry of Oil over the Nahr Umr field. Due to the fact that the field had never been properly developed, it was calculated to be producing about 50,000 barrels of oil per day at the time. In September 2010, Iraqi state-owned South Oil Company decided to increase the field\'s production, by the last quarter of 2011, to 70,000 bopd. It planned to drill 10 wells as part of the programme and had completed 30% of the project by October 2011.
Operators:
South Oil Company: Operator with 100% interest