To meet the demands of the Baiji refinery, a representative from Iraq’s North Oil Company disclosed plans to increase production by 50,000 barrels per day (bpd) on Friday.
According to the source, Oil Minister Hayan Abdul Ghani has instructed the North Oil Company to increase production to all-time highs. The Baiji refinery, which has a capacity of over 350,000 bpd, cannot accommodate the Kirkuk oil fields’ current production limit of 350,000 bpd.
The company has completed the replacement of crude oil pipelines from the Batma station to the Ain Zala station in the Nineveh oil fields, putting significant effort into developing oil fields, increasing production, and streamlining crude oil flow within operational stations, according to the source.
According to the source, the company intends to add 50,000 bpd from the Nineveh fields in the near future.
The company announced earlier this week that technical and engineering teams had reactivated an oil well in the Nineveh Batma field and were working to boost production to 10,000 BPD.
An engineering and technical team has begun planning to develop and improve the capabilities of oil fields all over Nineveh to boost production, support the national economy, and contribute to state revenue, according to the source.
In this context, oil expert Ali Khalil claims that the Batma oil field and the Ain Zala field were discovered in Nineveh in 1953 and 1939, respectively. As part of oil licensing rounds, exploration in several Nineveh oil sites continued after 2003.
He mentioned that the federal Ministry of Oil is currently developing four oil fields: Sassan close to Badush, Allan close to Al-Ayadiya in the western part of Nineveh, Qasab, and Jawan south of Mosul Qayyarah, Najma, Ain Zala, Batma, and Saifa are the active fields.
Khalil went on to explain that Iraqi, Italian, British, German, French, Dutch, and Swiss companies discovered the oil fields in Mosul in December 1932. There were 71 wells found at that time, but only 27 were used, 10 of which were large wells that produced oil in varying amounts.
He emphasized that North Oil Company could increase its focus on the Nineveh fields to over 500,000 barrels per day, implying that the Nineveh fields could produce 150,000 barrels per day.
