Italian firm Eni says Iraq’s Zubair oilfield will reach its peak output target of 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) by the start of 2017, following Eni’s completion of its field development plan.

A group of companies led by Eni plans to spend around $18 billion to upgrade the oilfield in southern Iraq, according to a document obtained by Reuters from Iraq’s oil ministry. Eni is the operator of the field, after being award the service contract in October 2009, when the field was producing only 195,000 bpd.

Eni’s partners in the consortium are Iraq’s Missan Oil Company, which holds 25%, Occidental Petroleum Corp , with 23.44%, and South Korea’s Korea Gas Corp , which owns 18.75%.

According to their development plan summarised by Reuters, Eni plans to spend $2.8 billion in 2011, $4.9 billion in 2012, $3.9 billion in 2013 and nearly the same in 2014, and $3.1 billion in 2015, the document showed.

The document also showed output projections for Zubair were 300,000 bpd at end-2011, 400,000 bpd at the start of 2013, 600,000 bpd at the start of 2014, 800,000 bpd in 2015 and 1 million bpd by the start of 2016.

The consortium has set a production target of 1.2 million barrels per day and will be paid a remuneration fee of $2 a barrel, according to a service contract it signed with Iraq.

Source: ArabianOilandGas