Lukoil prelim puts Ediru recoverable oil reserves at 500 mln tns

MOSCOW, Dec 10 (PRIME) -- Preliminary recoverable oil reserves of the Eridu block in Iraq amount to 500 million tonnes, Ilya Mandrik, vice president for exploration and development at Russian oil major Lukoil, told reporters on Tuesday.

“The plan (for development of Eridu) includes drilling of 9 exploratory and appraisal wells. We have done all the seismic works now, and drilling of the seventh well is going on. We will finish the plan in the first quarter of 2020, and we are to appraise the wells after that. It is too early to speak about a final estimate, but we can definitely say it amounts to about 500 million tonnes of recoverable reserves of oil,” he said.

“This is the largest discovery in Iraq over the past 20 years…We are obviously interested and we are taking action to launch production as soon as possible, as reserves there are huge. Economics there is significantly better than at West Qurna-2,” he said.

Lukoil runs two projects in Iraq – West Qurna-2 and Block 10, or Eridu. Lukoil, which has 60% of the project, holds the right for geological exploration and further development together with Japan’s Inpex. The Iraqi government is represented by South Oil Company, the holder of the 25-year contract, which can be extended for 5 years.

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