http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100719-707501.html
BAGHDAD (Dow Jones)--Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) is planning to raise production from Iraq's supergiant West Qurna oil field to 250,000-260,000 barrels a day during the first quarter of next year, the company's vice president said Monday.
"Now the field produces a little more than 200,000 barrels a day," James B. Adams told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview.
Exxon Mobil and its partner Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA) will also announce later this year a number of tenders for drilling new wells and a 3D seismic survey, Adams said on the sidelines of an oil symposium held by the Iraqi oil ministry to tackle obstacles facing international companies in Iraq's oil expansion efforts.
The tenders will be open to all firms including service companies such as Weatherford International and Halliburton among others, an Iraqi oil industry source said.
Exxon Mobil and its partner had already received bids for a tender announced earlier this year to build a man camp in the field. "We are very close to announce results of that tender," Adams said.
Exxon and Shell won the right to develop the 8.7-billion-barrel West Qurna Phase One in an auction held by Iraq last year for oil fields development contracts.
The consortium pledged to increase production to 2.325 million barrels a day. The consortium will receive $1.90 for each extra produced barrel of oil from the field.
The deal is one of a series to develop major and untapped oil fields that could catapult Iraq to third place among world oil producers and boost its capacity to Saudi Arabian levels of 12 million barrels a day, from around 2.5 million barrels a day currently.
-By Hassan Hafidh; Dow Jones Newswires; +962 799 831 831; hassan.hafidh@dowjonnes.com
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