Majnoon oil field

The field was discovered by Braspetro, a Brazilian company in 1975, under the leadership of Bolivar Montenegro Guerra in a shallow Upper Cretaceous formation. On December 11, 2009, the Iraqi government awarded a license to a joint venture from Royal Dutch Shell and Petronas 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 (CNPC), ExxonMobil, Sinochem Corporation, Total specifically bidding on Majnoon field. The finalist alliance of CNPC and Total offering $1.75/barrel lost the bid. 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 stake 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, Chinese company Anton Oilfield Services signed an Integrated Facilities Management Services Contract (IFMS) with Iraq's oil ministry, a two-year deal with a one-year extension option, to operate maintenance and production of the Majnoon field on behalf of Basra Oil Company. In May 2018, US company 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 the project and construction side of the Majnoon Oil Field in Basra, Iraq. In January 2021, Anton Oilfield Services and Basra Oil Company agreed to renew their IFMS for two more years (each year a one-year extension option). ==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 2009/2010 deal, the consortium was to increase production to a peak of of oil per day within a seven-year period. In Phase I of the project, the consortium intended to increase production from 45,000 to within a two-year period (i.e. until 2012). In 2010 it was claimed that the production at Majnoon would move Iraq from the 11th place to the 3rd among oil producing nations after only Saudi Arabia and Iran. The country sits on 150 billion barrels of oil and produced in 2010. In 2010, Iraq was expected to increase oil production to within six years, thus competing with Saudi Arabia. However, in 2023 Iraq only produced 4.3 million barrels per day, compared to Saudi Arabia's nearly 9 million barrels per day. ==See also==