BP doles out drilling contracts in Iraq

BAGHDAD, April 1 (UPI) -- British supermajor BP announced that it awarded contracts worth around $500 million to rehabilitate the giant Rumaila oil field in the south of Iraq.

BP selected oilfield services provider Schlumberger, through a partnership with the Iraqi Drilling Co., Petrochina subsidiary Daqing Drilling and U.S. drilling company Weatherford to provide work on rigs at Rumaila.

"We are confident that all of the companies will bring the operational and safety standards which will help us achieve our production targets in Iraq for 2010 and beyond," said Michael Townshend, president of BP Iraq.

BP said it plans to drill 70 wells in Rumaila in 2010. The company touts the giant field near the southern port city of Basra as one of the largest in the world. Current production reaches just more than 1 million barrels of oil per day.

Tony Hayward, the chief executive at BP, told delegates at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January that Iraq could increase its oil production from 2.5 million bpd to 10 million bpd by 2020.

BP joined the China National Petroleum Corp. in June to secure the rights to Rumaila rehabilitation in exchange for a $2 per-barrel fee for the incremental production.