Oil production at southern Iraq's West Qurna-1 field is running at a rate of 360,000 barrels per day (bpd) due to problems with low levels of water injection to boost production, the head of the joint management committee said.
Madhi Abdul Razzaq told Reuters the reason for the decline from a planned output of 400,000 bpd was due to "lateness in referring some contracts and a decrease in reservoir pressure."
An industry source had said earlier this month that output from West Qurna – 1 which is operated by ExxonMobil, has fallen almost 40 per cent to around 300,000 bpd compared with last year, citing the shortage of water as one of the reasons.
Abdul Razzaq said there was a problem with water injection a key issue that threatens Iraq's plans to raise its oil output. "To solve this problem we have a contract to provide 75,000 barrels of waters per day, but what is happening now is 55,000 barrels per days."
There is a multi-billion dollar common seawater injection scheme designed to boost production from the giant export oilfields in southern Iran but that project has been delayed.
For Iraq's giant Rumaila oilfield, the general manager of the Rumaila Operating Organisation, Salah Mohammad, said the plan throughout 2015 would be to reach 1.31 mbpd, compared to the current production of 1.28 mbpd.
Mohammad said that there were plans to build a new de-gassing station with a capacity of 450,000 bpd, in addition to three new water injection stations.
Technical analysis for the offers will be completed in November, Mohammad said, adding that he expected contracts to be signed in the middle of next year.
