by rockdoc123 » Thu 01 Jun 2006, 18:09:01
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'R')ockdoc, I'll be curious to see what you find on Iraq. Some of the stuff I've read seems very promissing - including only that approximately a quarter of the discovered fields have even been developed, and that the recovery techniques used on their developed are a couple of decades old.
OK I was able to dig through my files and find what I have from a few years back and updated with what I could find more recently.
According to IHS Energy Iraq had total 2P original reserves of 93.4 GBbl with 63.5 GBbl remaining which means 2P reserves are 67% depleted to date (assuming recovery factor does not rise from the original estimate). Of the original 2P reserves 27% is in Rumaila and 21% in Kirkuk. In comparison Rumaila makes up 22% of the remaining 2P reserves and Kirkuk only 8% of remaining. Of the total remaining reserves about 38 GBbl comes from fields with very little or no production to date. A number of fields were identified by the Iraqi’s after the Gulf War I which they planned on having foreign operators take over. IHS Energy notes that the projects waiting in the wings will be expensive to bring on-stream but not technically difficult and could account for an additional 2.0 MMBpd of production above and beyond current capcity.
The above lists the top projects which have been talked about.
According to IHS current liquid production is around 2 MMBpd
With regard to potential exploration upside IHS Energy noted that of about 525 prospects which had originally been identified prior to the first Gulf War only 114 have been drilled. A volumetric study of the various basins suggests that the Western Desert could hold 60 GBbl of which 19 GBbl has a “good chance” for discovery. In the Mesoptamian basin an estimated 90 GBbl might be present with a “good chance” for discovery of 13 GBbl. In the Zagros basin 64 GBbl might be present with a “good chance” for discovery of 14 GBbl.
So for remaining reserves (at estimated recovery) 25.5 GBbl of 2P reserves discovered and producing ; 38 GBbl discovered non-producing; “good chance” for discovery of an additional 46 GBbl. So potential for slightly more than 100 GBbl potential remaining.
Of course none of this takes into account possible reserve growth in existing fields from improved recovery techniques, which using Saudi Arabia as an example should be possible.