The Majnoon Oil Field is a super-giant

oil field A petroleum reservoir or oil and gas reservoir is a subsurface accumulation of hydrocarbons contained in porous or fractured rock formations. Such reservoirs form when kerogen (ancient plant matter) is created in surrounding rock by the presence ...

located from Basra in southern Iraq. Majnoon is one of the richest oil fields in the world with an estimated 38 billion barrels of oil in place. The field was named ''Majnoon'' which means ''crazy'' in Arabic in reference to excessive amount of oil in a dense area.

History

The field was discovered by

Braspetro Braspetro was a Brazilian state company. It was founded in 1972 as a subsidiary of Petrobras to find and produce oil outside Brazil. (As Petrobras had a monopoly over Brazilian oil production at the time, it was forbidden by law to operate internat ...

, a Brazilian company in 1975, under the leadership of Bolivar Montenegro Guerra in a shallow Upper Cretaceous formation. Development came to a halt in 1980 during the engineering phase of the project, due to Iran–Iraq War, particularly Operation Kheibar. At the time, Braspetro had finished drilling of 20 wells and pressed 14 drilling rigs into service. In the course of the war, Iran occupied and sabotaged the area. After the war, Southern Oil Company of Iraq restarted the production. In 1990's, Total S.A. of France negotiated a development contract with Saddam Hussein but was unable to sign the deal due to United Nations sanctions imposed on Iraq. The deal was eventually annulled by Hussein in 2002. Due to the

2003 Iraq War The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

, production was reduced to . In 2007, Total and Chevron signed an agreement with Iraqi government to explore Majnoon field. On December 11, 2009, the Iraqi government awarded a license to a joint venture from Royal Dutch Shell and

Petronas Petroliam Nasional Berhad (National Petroleum Limited), commonly known as Petronas, is a Malaysian oil and gas company. Established in 1974 and wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia, the corporation is vested with all oil and gas reso ...

to take over operations at Majnoon Oilfield, and triple production from the estimated reserve of nearly at a fee rate of $1.39/barrel. The consortium was awarded the contract out of 44 international companies, participating in the auction, with

China National Petroleum Corporation The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) () is a major national oil and gas corporation of China and one of the largest integrated energy groups in the world. Its headquarters are in Dongcheng District, Beijing. CNPC was ranked fourth ...

(CNPC),

ExxonMobil ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 30, ...

Sinochem Corporation Sinochem Corporation () is a Chinese state-owned multinational conglomerate primarily engaged in the production and trading of chemicals and fertilizer and exploration and production of oil for civilian and military purposes. Its majority ow ...

, Total specifically bidding on Majnoon field. The finalist alliance of CNPC and Total offering $1.75/barrel lost the bid. The deal intends a 20-year service and development of the field. The contract was approved by Council of Ministers of Iraq on January 5, 2010. Shell agreed at the end of 2017 to exit the venture and hand over its operation to Basra Oil Company (BOC) by the end of June 2018. Shell was the operator and holder of 45 percent at Majnoon, with Malaysia's Petronas owning 30 percent, and Iraq's Missan Oil Company holding the remaining 25 percent. In June 2018 officials from Shell and Basra Oil Company met to mark the handing over of the operations of the field. In April 2018, Anton Oilfield Services signed Integrated Facilities Management Services Contract (IFMS) a two-year deal with Iraq's oil ministry with a one year extension option to operate the maintenance and production of the Majnoon field on behalf of Basra Oil Company. In January 2021, Anton Oilfield Services and Basra Oil Company agreed to renew the IFMS for two more years of one year extension option. In May 2018, KBR, Inc. announced that it has been awarded an engineering, procurement and construction management contract (EPCM) by Basra Oil Company (BOC) for the development of project and construction side of the Majnoon Oil Field in Basra, Iraq.

Licences

Until June 2018 (when Shell - the operator exited) Shell held a 45% stake in all licences, Petronas 30% and Iraqi Ministry of Oil 25%.

Reservoir

Majnoon's first pay zone consists of Upper Cretaceous which proved of oil per day. Mishrif carbonates, Nahr Umr sands ( Middle Cretaceous) and Shuaiba carbonates and Zubair sands ( Lower Cretaceous) form the pay zones.

Production

According to the deal, the consortium will increase production to a peak of oil per day within seven-year period. Majnoon was the first Iraqi field out of 10 major ones offered to international companies for development. The contract with Shell and Petronas includes drilling over 40 production wells, construction of three gas separation stations and two crude oil processing refineries with overall capacity of . The official start date was March 1, 2010. In the Phase I of the project, the consortium intends to increase the production from 45,000 to within two-year period. The production at Majnoon will move Iraq from the current 11th place to the 3rd among oil producing nations after Saudi Arabia and Iran. The country sits on 150 billion of oil and currently produces . Iraq expects to top the oil production to within six years, thus competing with Saudi Arabia.

References

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