Petronas Sells Its Stake in Iraq’s Garraf Oil Field
Malaysian Petronas has notified the Iraqi side that it wants to sell its stake in the operator’s participation in the Garraf oil field (Garraf) with a capacity of 155 thousand barrels per day.
This was reported on July 4 by the information portal Iraq Oil Report.
According to the publication:
- this is a sign of Petronas dissatisfaction with Iraq’s investment climate:
– Petronas intends to withdraw from the project due to late payments from Iraq and low profit margins.
The top management of Petronas at the end of May, 2023 informed the head of the Ministry of Oil of Iraq that the company is studying the possibility of selling its 45% stake in the Indonesian Pertamina, follows from the document following the meeting, which IOR has.
2 employees of Petronas and 2 employees of the state company Dhi Qar Oil Company (DQOC) confirmed the authenticity of the certificate to the publication.
Also on June 26, 2023, it became known that the state-owned energy companies of Indonesia and Malaysia, Pertamina and Petronas, plan to jointly buy out Shell’s stake in the Indonesian gas project Masela.
The deal is expected to close within a month.
Indonesia has seen sluggish oil and natural gas production in recent years due to block depletion.
New major projects, incl. Masela (also known as Abadi LNG) and Indonesia Deepwater Development (IDD) are facing delays as giants such as Shell and Chevron have announced exits as part of their global strategies.
Garraf deposit
- located in the governorate of Dhi-Qar in southern Iraq, 5 km northwest of the city of Al-Refai, 9 km southeast of the city of Kalat Suker and 85 km north of the city of Nasiriyah;
- opened in 1984;
- reserves – approximately 1 billion barrels. oil;
- oil with a density of 15 – 36 °API in several tanks;
- at the end of March 2019, the production volume at the field was 90 thousand barrels per day of oil;
- on July 13, 2022, Zhongman Petroleum and Natural Group Group (ZPEC) and Eriell Oilfield Services signed a full contract for cementing 16 wells in the Garraf field in Iraq;
- development rights belong to:
– Malaysian Petronas,
– Iraqi South Oil Company (SOC) and North Oil Company (NOC),
– Japanese JAPEX.
