France’s Total has won a 30%stake in a new contract to operate Al-Shaheen, Qatar’s largest offshore oilfield, controlled by the state-owned Qatar Petroleum (QP), reported Reuters. QP will keep the remaining 70%.
QP’s CEO, Saad al-Kaabi, said that Total will be in charge of operating the oilfield with a start on 14th July and a new company named North Oil Company will be created to manage the joint venture in the Al-Shaheen field, which currently produces around 300,000 b/d.
Total’s CEO, Patrick Pouyanne, said in a news conference in Doha: “We have a plan to invest for five years 2017-2022, more than $2b in that field in order to integrate technology.”
Winning Al-Shaheen stake is the second major upstream development deal struck by Total with a Gulf oil producer in the past couple of years, according to Rigzone.
Previously, it has been expected for years that Denmark’s A.P. Moller-Maersk will renew its 25-year production agreement on Al-Shaheen field when its licence runs out in 2017. Yet, the Gulf state surprised the company last year by putting out a tender for the field which Maersk Oil has been operating since 1992.
In the tender, six other international oil firms including BP and Royal Dutch Shell Plc had bid to operate the oilfield.
