Najmah oil field

The Najmah oil field was discovered in 1934 and is situated in Nineveh governorate, 50 kilometres (km) south of Mosul city. The field is 11 km long and 4.5km wide

Contract Negotiations
Angolan oil company Sonangol was the only company to bid for the Najmah contract area in the second licensing round of 2009. The Oil Ministry announced on the 12 December 2009 that the company had been awarded the contract area.

The contract specified the consortium would pay a $100 million signature bonus. Sonangol originally offered to accept a remuneration fee of $8.50 per barrel, but later accepted the maximum figure of $6 per barrel allowed by the Ministry of Oil. The deal specified that the state partner, the Iraq Drilling Company, also bore the costs of development of the field.

The Najmah field holds significant accumulations of heavy oil (15 to 20°API). Reports from the BBC suggested that the high fees paid for the contract area to Sonangol reflect the operational risks at the site and relatively low quality of oil.

Production and Export
Under the contract, the company committed under the agreement to reaching a production plateau of 110,000 barrels per day (bpd), and holding it for nine years. In March 2011 Sonangol started work at the Najmah field and was due to start to dig wells in April 2011, according to a report from Aswat al-Iraq.

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