Oil major UK/Dutch Shell Group is scheduled to reach its Majnoon field production target of 175,000 barrels a day (b/d) by mid-2013, MEED’s Iraq Energy Projects 2013 conference was told on 25 March.

“We will reach the production target of 175,000 b/d by the middle of this year,” said Sharon Poulson, finance director for Shell in Iraq.

Shell has been developing the Majnoon field since 2010. The oil company is currently drilling 18 new wells and rehabilitating existing structures to produce 120,000 b/d. The Majnoon field has total reserves of 38 million barrels.

Shell is developing the Majnoon oil field in consortium with Malaysia’s Petronas and state-owned Missan Oil Company. The first phase of development at the field involved the construction of new facilities and modifying its existing infrastructure to produce oil. This was known as the first commercial production (FCP) project.

Shell recently invited international engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firms to express interest in the development of a two new gas projects in the south of Iraq.