Qatar’s North Oil Company, a 70:30 joint venture between Qatar Petroleum (QP) and France’s Total that will operate the country’s giant Al Shaheen offshore oil field, will be inaugurated on July 14, which is also the French National Day.
The oil field, located in Qatari waters 80km north of Ras Laffan, has a production capacity of 300,00 bpd.
Beginning production in 1994, the existing development consists of 30 platforms and 300 wells. At present Maersk Oil and Gas is the operator of the field and the current 25-year production sharing agreement expires on July 13, 2017.
Maersk and QP have together developed Al Shaheen into Qatar’s largest offshore producing oil field, which now accounts for about 40% of Qatar’s total oil production.
QP president and chief executive Saad Sherida al-Kaabi yesterday confirmed that Total chief would be in Qatar to inaugurate the North Oil Company on July 14, 2017.
In June 2016, al-Kaabi and Total chairman and chief executive Patrick Pouyanne signed agreements (to operate Al Shaheen) in the presence of Prime Minister HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani.
QP’s objective for the competitive process was to choose a partner that has world-class technical capabilities that enable it to continue the development and operation of Al-Shaheen field in partnership with Total, while at the same time ensuring the highest possible financial return to Qatar,” al-Kaabi had said earlier.
A development and fiscal agreement was also signed, in which QP licensed the rights for the development and operation of the field, and for the production, sale and export of crude oil from Al-Shaheen for a period of 25 years starting July 14, 2017.
This agreement is in line with strategy of Total, which has been in Qatar for the last 80 years, to reinforce its presence in the Middle East, in particular by accessing giant fields and by complementing its portfolio with low-technical cost oil assets, Pouyanne had said.
Total holds a 20% interest in the upstream part of Qatargas 1; 10% in the Qatargas 1 liquefaction plant joint venture; 24.5% in the Dolphin Energy and a 16.7% in the Qatargas 2 Train 5 joint venture. Total’s Qatari production averaged 134,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2015.
Total is also a partner in the Laffan Refinery with a 10% interest and in the Qapco (20%) and Qatofin (48.6%) petrochemical plants.
Al-Kaabi addressing a press conference at the QP headquarters yesterday. PICTURE: Thajudeen
