Iraq struck a deal with Russian energy giant Lukoil yesterday to develop one of the world’s biggest untapped oil fields as part of efforts by Baghdad to dramatically ramp up its crude output.
The agreement over the West Qurna-2 reservoir with Lukoil, which will share the project with Norwegian energy firm StatoilHydro, comes a day consortiums led by Shell and CNPC were awarded contracts.
Meanwhile, a joint bid by Malaysia’s Petronas and Japan’s Japex was yesterday awarded a contract to work on the Garraf oil field in southern Iraq, Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said.
The pair had requested US$1.49 per barrel of oil extracted from the reservoir and projected output at 230,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd). Petronas will take 60 percent, while Japex will take the remaining 40 percent.
The deals reached so far in the two-day auction promise to increase Iraq’s oil production by more than 4.2 million bpd in the coming years as the country seeks to become one of the world’s biggest energy producers and bring in much-needed revenue to rebuild its war-battered economy.
“We can announce that Lukoil has won the contract to develop the West Qurna-2 oil field,” al-Shahristani said at the oil ministry conference hall where the auction was being held.
Lukoil and StatoilHydro requested US$1.15 for each barrel extracted from the giant field and projected output of 1.8 million bpd. Lukoil will take 85 percent and StatoilHydro 15 percent.
West Qurna-2 is one of the world’s biggest undeveloped oil fields, with known reserves of 12.9 billion barrels. It lies west of the equally enormous Majnoon field, which was auctioned on Friday to Anglo-Dutch firm Shell and Petronas.
Shell and Petronas will receive US$1.39 per barrel of oil they extract from Majnoon, which has proven reserves of 12.6 billion barrels, and project that they will produce 1.8 million bpd.
China’s CNPC, meanwhile, led a group comprising Petronas and France’s Total on Friday to capture Halfaya, also in southern Iraq.
The trio requested US$1.40 per barrel and projected production of 535,000 bpd. The field has known reserves of 4.1 billion barrels.
No bids were received, however, to work on either the East Baghdad field, or the cluster of fields referred to jointly as Eastern Fields.
Analysts said companies were concerned by still-common violence in the areas close to Baghdad and in Diyala Province where the fields are situated.
Yesterday morning, Angolan firm Sonangol said it reached agreement with Baghdad over the Qaiyarah field after the company reduced its initial offer.
A day earlier, Iraq had rejected Sonangol’s per-barrel bid as too high.
Iraq relies massively on oil sales for its economic growth and government income. The country wants to boost oil production to 7 million bpd within six years from 2.5 million now. In the longer term, it is targeting 10 to 12 million bpd, making it a potential rival of Saudi Arabia.
Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips should spur growth for the semiconductor industry over the next few years, the CEO of a major supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said, dismissing concerns that investors had misjudged the pace and extent of spending on AI. While the global chip market has grown about 8 percent annually over the past 20 years, AI semiconductors should grow at a much higher rate going forward, Scientech Corp (辛耘) chief executive officer Hsu Ming-chi (許明琪) told Bloomberg Television. “This booming of the AI industry has just begun,” Hsu said. “For the most prominent
Former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) yesterday warned against the tendency to label stakeholders as either “pro-China” or “pro-US,” calling such rigid thinking a “trap” that could impede policy discussions. Liu, an adviser to the Cabinet’s Economic Development Committee, made the comments in his keynote speech at the committee’s first advisers’ meeting. Speaking in front of Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) and other officials, Liu urged the public to be wary of falling into the “trap” of categorizing people involved in discussions into either the “pro-China” or “pro-US” camp. Liu,
Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said Taiwan’s government plans to set up a business service company in Kyushu, Japan, to help Taiwanese companies operating there. “The company will follow the one-stop service model similar to the science parks we have in Taiwan,” Kuo said. “As each prefecture is providing different conditions, we will establish a new company providing services and helping Taiwanese companies swiftly settle in Japan.” Kuo did not specify the exact location of the planned company but said it would not be in Kumamoto, the Kyushu prefecture in which Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC, 台積電) has a
China has threatened severe economic retaliation against Japan if Tokyo further restricts sales and servicing of chipmaking equipment to Chinese firms, complicating US-led efforts to cut the world’s second-largest economy off from advanced technology. Senior Chinese officials have repeatedly outlined that position in recent meetings with their Japanese counterparts, people familiar with the matter said. Toyota Motor Corp privately told officials in Tokyo that one specific fear in Japan is that Beijing could react to new semiconductor controls by cutting the country’s access to critical minerals essential for automotive production, the people said, declining to be named discussing private affairs. Toyota is among