Royal Dutch Shell Plc will build a dock in Iraq’s southern Shatt al-Arab waterway to handle equipment needed to develop the Majnoon oilfield, the head of the country’s state-run ports company said.
The ports company and South Oil Co. signed an agreement to allow Shell to build the dock at its own expenses, Salah Khudair, director general of the General Company for Ports of Iraq, said in an e-mailed statement.
“The dock will facilitate the shipment of energy-related equipment for the international companies that are developing the oilfields, including Majnoon,” he said.
Iraq, home to the world’s fifth-biggest oil reserves, wants foreign funding and expertise to help it boost energy exports and help an economy stunted by years of conflict and sanctions. The government, which gets most of its revenue from oil, plans to build offshore mooring facilities in the south to more than double export capacity to 4.5 million barrels a day by mid-2012.
Together with Petroliam Nasional Bhd of Malaysia, Shell won a 20-year service contract in 2009 to raise output from Majnoon to 1.8 million barrels a day. Shell Chief Executive Officer Peter Voser said Oct. 12 that production from Majnoon had risen to 70,000 barrels a day.
As well as being the lead operator, Shell holds a 45 percent stake, leaving Petronas with 30 percent and the Iraqi state with a 25 percent interest. Majnoon, which straddles the Basra and Maysan provinces, has estimated crude reserves of about 12 billion barrels and 9.5 trillion cubic feet of gas.