"NEWS" Finding oil by the billionsSaturday, 05 September 2009, 09:05 EDT
Two new oil fields found in Kurdistan
Flared gas burns at the Kirkuk oil field in June. AFP
By Aiyob Mawloodi
The Kurdish Globe
Kurdistan oil export to reach a million barrels per day
KRG plans to "increase its oil exports continuously until it reaches 1 million barrels per day in four or five years' time."
Two new oil fields have recently been discovered in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq by international oil companies operating in the region.
According to a report published in the UAE-based "The National," after explorations in the northern parts of Kurdistan Region, a British oil company discovered a large amount of oil reserves in the Shekhan oil field. The company announced that the reserve holds between 1.5 billion to 3 billion barrels.
In another part of Kurdistan, the Canadian Heritage Oil Company and its Turkish partner, Genel Energy, who are exploring and producing oil in Kurdistan, found another oil field in May 2009 with a reserve amount of 3 billion barrels of crude oil.
The report by "The National" also says that oil exports of the region are to reach 1 million barrels per day.
In this regard, Dr. Bayazid Hassan, a Kurdish member of the Iraqi National Assembly and member of the Oil and Natural Resources Committee of the Assembly, announced that the KRG is planning to increase its oil exports continuously until it reaches 1 million barrels per day in four or five years' time.
"Since the KRG started to export oil to the Turkish Ceyhan Port this year, there are efforts to increase the amount of exports from its current amount, which is 100,000 barrels per day, 60,000 of which is produced and exported from the Tawke oil field and the remaining 40,000 barrels from the TaqTaq oil field," MP Hassan told a local Kurdish news agency. "This amount is set to reach 250,000 barrels per day by the end of this year, and will increase even further to reach 450,000 barrels per day by the end of year 2010."