Q&A: Arkan Abdul-Satar Abdul-Jabbar, director of Zubair oil field

BASRA - The Zubair oil field, one of Iraq’s oldest, is currently producing about 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) of high-quality crude oil, but in order to expand capacity it needs at least three barrels of water to be injected for each new barrel of oil.

Zubair Field Operations Director Engineer Arkan Abdul-Satar Abdul-Jabbar said in an interview with Iraq Oil Report that much of the field's water demand is supposed to be met by the seawater supply component of a mega-deal led by TotalEnergies. But those supplies are not expected to come online until 2027 at the soonest, which means the Zubair consortium, led by Italy's Eni, has to find interim solutions.

Abdul-Jabbar said the production target for 2024 is unchanged at 500,000 bpd. He added that Zubair crude is needed for blending with medium and heavy grades produced in other southern fields, so the project is often among the last to be directed to cut production to meet OPEC-plus quotas.

Zubair also produces 400 million standard cubic feet (scf/d) of associated gas, of which 140 million scf/d is still being flared.

A full text of the interview is available below for subscribers.