DOHA - With planned production of 6,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude during the first stage, Qatar Petroleum Development Company (QPD) of Japan aims to raise the bar to 10,000 bpd by the middle of next year once the second stage is completed. Actual production started on March 13 of this year.
Speaking to The Peninsula yesterday at a reception to commemorate QPD's first oil production here, the company's Administration and Finance Manager Kimio Katayanagi said: "After the second stage, perhaps by mid-2007, we will be able to produce 10,000 bpd."
Yesterday's dinner reception was attended by Second Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Industry H E Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah and QPD President and Chairman of Cosmo Oil Keiichiro Okabe.
Also present were senior officials from Qatar Petroleum (QP), QPD and Sojitz Corporation, which has a 14.2 per cent stake in QPD. Cosmo Oil holds the other 85.2 per cent.
A special characteristic of the project is that for the first time on Qatar's territory, the associated gas produced during crude oil exploitation is not being flared in the air, but instead, injected underground by `sour gas injection'.
A QPD official explained that this means the entire project is perhaps the most environment-friendly in the country.
The oil is being shipped from Halul Island as Qatar Marine Crude and the oil to which QPD has rights being brought into the Cosmo refinery.
QPD was established in September 1997 and assigned rights to Area Block 1 south-east of Qatar based on a development and production sharing agreement with the Qatar government. Exploration then indicated that the project was commercially viable in terms of oil production.
© The Peninsula 2006
