Badra oil field

The Badra oil field is situated in Wasit governorate, 160 km south-east of Baghdad, and extends across the border with Iran. The field is approximately 16km long and 6km wide. The Badra discovery well was drilled in 1979. A second appraisal well, drilled in the late 1980s, was abandoned due to the impact of war.

Gazprom describes the Basra deposit as having a 'challenging profile', with a significant part of the surface requiring clearance of mines. In preparation for a 2011 3D seismic survey of the deposit, work was carried out to remove weapons over an area of approximately 12,000 square metres.

Contracts Negotiated
The Gazprom-led consortium was the only group to bid for the contract area in Iraq's second licensing round of 2009. The Oil Ministry announced in December 2009 that it had accepted a revised bid form the consortium, which comprised of Gazprom (30%), Kogas (22.5%), Petronas (15%) and TPAO (7.5%). The 25% Iraqi state partner was the Oil Exploration Company.

The contract specified the consortium would pay a $100 million signature bonus and the remuneration fee would be $5.50 per barrel. The official press release announcing the contract said the consortium had originally offered $6 a barrel but ultimately accepted the lower figure. As well as crude oil, the contract stipulates that the fee is also payable on liquid petroleum gas (LPG) and natural gas handed over to the state partner from a gas processing plant. The fee was to kick in when production reaches 15,000 barrels per day (bpd). The release specified that the state partner also born the costs of development of the field.

Production and Export
In November 2011, the governor of Wasit announced that the first oil well had been drilled at Badra field, one of 17 wells to be drilled at the site. The governor expected that the field would reach peak production of 170,000 bpd by 2016, making the Wasit province one of the main oil producing provinces in the country.

The depth of the appraisal well reached 4,900 metres and drilling was expected to be completed in April 2012.

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