Halfaya oil field

The Halfaya oil field was discovered in 1976 and is located in the Missan governorate in the south-east of Iraq, 35 kilometres (km) south-east of Amarah city. As of 2010 the field was proven to hold 4.1 billion barrels of recoverable reserves, with a production potential of 200-535,000 barrels per day (bpd). The Halfaya deposit is approximately 35km long and 10km wide.

According to Iraq Oil Report in 2012, Maysan province is emerging as a major new source of oil and is on track to becoming Iraq's second largest producing province.

Contract Negotiations
Following Iraq's second petroleum licensing round held in December 2009, the Halfaya contract area was awarded to an international consortium led by Chinese CNPC. The consortium split was 37.5% to CNPC, 18.75% each to Petronas and Total, and 25% to the Iraqi state partner. The CNPC-led group beat three consortia which submitted offers to win the field, including offers led by Norway's Statoil and Russia's Lukoil.

Under the terms of the deal, the group will be paid a remuneration fee of $1.40 per barrel, lower than the $1.76 sought by a rival consortium led by Indian state-owned ONGC Videsh Ltd. and were to pay Iraq a non-recoverable signature bonus of $150 million. The contract stipulates that production should reach 535,000 bpd, which is five times higher than the local production of the field, in addition to provision of gas products to neighboring power stations.

In April 2010, Total CEO Christophe de Margarie said his company would like to acquire a larger stake in the field. "Iraq is a strong part of our strategy in the world and we certainly don't intend to remain a minority partner in the Halfaya field," de Margarie was quoted as telling Reuters.

Production and Export
Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaiby said that the second phase of Halfaya will involve production capacity reaching 200,000 bpd by the end of 2013, while after the third phase production will rise to 400,000 bpd by the end of 2014. The consortium plans to hit production of 600,000 bpd by the end of 2016. In June 2012, the company said the first phase of operations at Halfaya was operational and producing around 120,000 bpd.

Maysan Oil Company has stated that any liquid petroleum gas (LPG) from Halfaya would be transferred to Iraqi state-run South Gas Company for domestic needs and power generation.

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