 Business & Finance Club - Qatar : Denmark's Maersk Oil has completed the $6 billion al-Shaheen oil field expansion project in Qatar on time and within budget with the field producing around 300,000 b/d, one third of the OPEC oil producing state's total crude oil production, Qatari oil minister Abdullah al-Attiyah said Sunday.
Maersk has been working on a major expansion of the offshore al-Shaheen field aimed at boosting its production from an average of 331,000 b/d in 2008 to around 525,000 b/d on completion.
Attiyah said at the inauguration ceremony that al-Shaheen was now the
biggest oil producing field in Qatar, accounting for a third of Qatar's total
crude oil production. Previously the 335,000 b/d Dukhan field was the
emirate's largest producing field.
Qatar Petroleum had been targeting higher production from al-Shaheen by end 2009 but has been constrained by OPEC production cuts totalling 4.2 million b/d which came into effect in January 2009.
Maersk said in May that al-Shaheen production was constrained by OPEC output cuts and production from al-Shaheen was slightly lower than the 2009 level.
The expansion consisted of building 15 new platforms and 136 oil
production and water injection wells.
Al Shaheen field has been appraised and developed by Maersk Oil Qatar since 1992 under a production-sharing agreement with state-owned Qatar Petroleum.
A joint statement announcing completion of the expansion work said the
field, which initially was believed to have maximum capacity of 50,000 b/d, has produced 1 billion barrels of crude oil to date.
"The development of the al-Shaheen field at a cost of around $6 billion
has been completed on schedule and within budget..." Maersk Oil Chief
Executive Jakob Thomasen was quoted in the statement as saying.
Maersk said May 12 that future production from the field was being
discussed with Qatar Petroleum in view of current production results.
Qatar has said that completion of the al-Shaheen expansion will raise its
crude oil production capacity to more than 1 million b/d from just over
900,000 b/d.
Qatar produced 820,000 b/d of crude oil in June, the latest Platts survey
of OPEC's production showed, above its 730,000 b/d OPEC target.
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