SPC And Total Seek To Reverse Output Decline With New Production Wells
Oil production from the Dair al-Zour Petroleum Company – a 50/50 joint venture between the Syrian Petroleum Company (SPC) and Total – has fallen steeply to around 26,000 b/d recently from almost 60,000 b/d at the end of the 1990s as a result of the decline in output from 14 wells out of a total of 38 production wells, according to the chairman of the company Feras Kaddour. A report in the official Syrian daily al-Thawra of 13 January quoting Dr Kaddour said that output fell to 10mn barrels (27,397 b/d) in 2009 and will continue to decrease to 8.5mn barrels (23,288 b/d) in 2010, with expectations of further declines in 2015 and 2020. However, Dr Kaddour is optimistic that his company would be able to partly make up for the loss of output with new production wells that are being drilled under its 2010 drilling program, including five wells in the Tabiyeh field that are expected to add some 7,000 b/d of capacity in the second half of 2010. The chairman further said that his company would need to increase the supply of water to 90,000 b/d for enhanced recovery schemes in its fields, noting that at present around 63,000 b/d of water are injected in five wells – two at the Qahar field and three at the Jafra field. Dr Kaddour also confirmed that the company has recently completed the replacement of a 17km section of its 16-inch, 90km crude export pipeline, which runs 10ms below the Euphrates river bed. The corroded section of the pipeline was a threat to the environment, the company’s chairman noted.
Last July Total and Syria’s General Petroleum Corporation signed a service agreement to optimize the Tabiyeh field development with the aim of increasing the recovery of liquid hydrocarbons and the delivery of gas to the to the domestic market from the Dair al-Zour gas plant (MEES, 13 July 2009).
Copyright MEES 2010.
