Security issues associated with export artery from Kurdish oil field curbs outlook for Genel Energy. Photo courtesy of Genel Energy
LONDON, July 7 (UPI) -- Iraqi-focused oil company Genel Energy said it lowered its outlook for production from one of its key assets in the Kurdish north of the country.
Genel, which lists headquarters in London, provided an operational update after drilling a new well within the Taq Taq oil field in the Kurdish north of Iraq. The company said the implied production for the first half of the year was above 60,000 barrels of oil per day, but actually lower because of a 23-day shutdown of an export pipeline tied to the Turkish sea port of Ceyhan.
The company said actual production during the first half of the year was actually closer to around 56,000 bpd. Based in activity planned for the rest of the year, the company said it now expects a full-year average of between 53,000 and 60,000 bpd, which is at least 10 percent less than previously expected.
"Future Taq Taq development activity will continue to evolve based on reservoir performance, with an overall strategy of drilling development wells to offset field declines," the company said in a statement.
An internal review from Genel of the Taq Taq basin published earlier this year put the estimated recoverable proven and probable reserves at 356 million barrels, about half as much as estimated in June 2011.
In February, the company said it expected to take a $1 billion charge on operations at the Taq Taq field because of revised assumptions on recoverable reserves. At the time, the company said production from the field would fade off to as low as 50,000 bpd by 2018.
Iraq told the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries that its production level in May was around 4.5 million bpd total, about 0.5 percent lower than the previous month.
Iraq's oil sector may be under pressure from militancy tied to the group calling itself the Islamic State. While approaching the borders of the semiautonomous Kurdish north of Iraq, Genel has said its fields are largely secured from violence, though export arteries through Turkey are under threat.
