Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 14 -- The Kurdistan regional government (KRG), Hunt Oil Co. of the Kurdistan Region, and Impulse Energy Corp. have signed a production-sharing contract (PSC) covering petroleum exploration activities in the Duhok, Kurdistan area of Iraq.
Hunt will serve as operator and will begin a geological survey along with seismic work by yearend. The firm plans to drill one exploration well in 2008.
This is the first PSC to be signed by the KRG since the Oil and Gas Law of the Kurdistan Region was issued by the Kurdistan National Assembly (parliament) in early August.
Kurdistan has pursued an energy policy independent of Iraq's national government since 2003, when the US led an invasion to topple the country's former leader, Saddam Hussein.
The KRG said in June it would offer 40 oil-and-gas blocks for exploration as part of a plan to increase daily production. According to BP, Iraq has an estimated 115 billion bbl of proved oil reserves, with a sizable portion of them in the Kurdish region.
Last week, Addax Petroleum said the fourth appraisal-development well in Taq Taq field in the Kurdistan area flowed 48° gravity oil at a combined rate of 37,560 b/d from three reservoirs (OGJ Online, Sept. 6, 2007).
In August, the Tawke 8 well drilled by DNO ASA in its Tawke oil field in the Kurdish region found crude oil in deeper reservoir levels (OGJ Online, Aug. 27, 2007).
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].
