Iraq investment of BP to reach $5 billion by 2016

U.K. oil major BP PLC (BP) has revealed its plan to increase the oil production in the Rumaila oilfield, the largest in Iraq, by 750,000 barrels per day by 2017. The company has also an aim to increase its spending in the country to $5 billion a year from the current $2.6 billion by 2016 – as stated by a senior company executive on this Wednesday.

He stated that the company is getting a production level of 1.4 million barrels a day, at present in the Rumaila oilfield. Over next three years, the company has a vision of achieving 100,000 barrels a day a year, as stated by Andrew McAuslan, Vice President of negotiations, upstream business development at BP.

Last year, BP invested around 2 billion dollars in Iraq and it has the plan to hike its spending to $2.6-2.7 billion in 2013. In Abu Dhabi, Mr. McAuslan illustrated this to the reporters. BP has said it alone would invest some $15 billion in the project across the course of the 20-year contract.

Rumaila oilfield is one of the largest oilfields of Iraq, which holds oil reserves of 17 billion barrels. The development projects for this oilfield have been awarded to BP and CNPC or China National Petroleum Corp. A technical service contract was signed between these two and Iraqi government in November 2009. The BP-led consortium had pledged to almost triple production at the field to 2.85 million barrels a day in seven years after the start of work in the project in 2010.

In this overall venture, BP holds the highest stake of 38% and CNPC holds 37 percent stakes. Iraq's state South Oil Co. is the third stake holder with 25 percent stakes. 1.06 million barrels a day was the production capacity of the field before this joint venture.