British energy company Genel Energy said it found more oil in its Taq Taq license area inside Kurdish territory in Iraq. Photo courtesy of Genel Energy
Dec. 4 (UPI) -- Though it's too early to make any estimate on the reserve potential, British energy company Genel said it found more oil in the Kurdish region of Iraq.
Genel has a 44 percent working interest in the Taq Taq field inside Kurdish territory in northern Iraq alongside Norwegian oil company DNO. The company said the results at the TT-29w appraisal well at the northern ridge of that field encountered oil. Genel said production started at a preliminary rate of 3,200 barrels of oil per day.
"Combined with the testing results, management is optimistic for the potential of the northern flank of the Taq Taq field," the company said in a statement Monday. "However, it is too early to estimate what impact the well result will have on reserves, long-term production rates or future investment activity in the northern flank and the field as a whole."
Fighting escalated in mid-October between Iraqi and Kurdish military forces, weeks after a controversial Kurdish referendum for independence. The Kurdish referendum coincided more or less with the liberation of parts of northern Iraq from the terrorist group calling itself the Islamic State.
There were reports that some of the flow of oil from northern Iraq to a Turkish port on the Mediterranean Sea was interrupted, but there are few indications that work inside Kurdish territory was disrupted.
A spokesperson for Genel said operations at the Taq Taq and separate Tawke license areas have continued uninterrupted.
The company said gross production from the Taq Taq license area was around 13,351 barrels per day in October, averaged 13,700 barrels per day in November and was now at 15,100 barrels per day.
