France’s Total is confident it can maintain production levels of about 20,000 barrels a day (b/d) from the Al-Khalij oil field it operates in partnership with Qatar Petroleum (QP) in the Gulf peninsula state.

The field was operated solely by Total between 1997 and 2012, but QP signed a new contract with the firm that saw it take back 60 per cent of the production in late 2012. At the height of its production, the Al-Khalij field produced 40,000 b/d.

Speaking at the MEED Qatar Projects 2014 conference in Doha on 19 March, Guillaume Chalmin, managing director of Total in Qatar, said significant investment in asset integrity management, technology and reservoir management meant production should be able to be maintained for 25 years.

Al-Khalij is located about 130 kilometres east of the Qatari coast.

MEED reported in December 2013 that Doha was refocusing on its oil assets and has several large projects in place to reinvigorate the sector.

The country currently has $16.5bn-worth of upstream oil schemes at various pre-execution phases. To put this figure in perspective, regional projects tracker MEED Projects states that Qatar’s total investment in upstream oil projects since 2000 is $775m.

The largest planned scheme is the $13bn redevelopment of the Bul Hanine offshore oil field. The field is owned and operated by QP and currently has a production of about 40,000 b/d. The company plans to ramp this up to 95,000 b/d and has put enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technology in place that will prolong the life of the field by 25 years. The scheme is in the study phase and work is not expected to be completed until 2022.

Another offshore oil field undergoing extensive redevelopment is the Idd el-Shargi North Dome field, operated by the US’ Occidental Petroleum (Oxy). Oxy has been operating the field since 1994 and the expansion will sustain the current production of 100,000 b/d for at least another six years. Tenders are expected to be released for the project in early 2014 and work should be completed by 2017.