Drilling activities for oil and gas start in Iraqi offshores

INA-  BAGHDAD

The Chinese company (CNOOC), in coordination with the Oil Exploration Company, has started seismic exploration in the first part of the Iraqi offshore to search for oil and gas reservoirs in the regional waters, while specialists called for the need for Iraq to present  a map of the regional sea with the United Nations to end the problems of the maritime borders.


 The Director of the Oil Exploration Company, Ali Jassim, told "Al-Sabah" newspaper , and followed by the Iraqi News Agency (INA), that "the Chinese company has started its work in implementing a joint study contract for two-dimensional seismic survey and geophysical surveys to explore hydrocarbon gatherings in the Iraqi offshores in the north of the Arabian Gulf."

He stressed, "there is an urgent government desire to invest and increase national reserves to keep pace with the needs of the markets, according to expectations of finding the targeted commercial quantities, similar to the riparian countries with Iraq."

 Jassim said that  (CNOOC) is approaching to put the marine cleaning project for tender soon to specialized companies."

 While specialists confirmed, "the riparian countries such as Kuwait, and before that, Iran and Saudi Arabia, presented the map of the regional sea at the United Nations without negotiations with Iraq, while Iraq has not yet presented the map, like these countries, to become officially recognized."

The expert in maritime affairs, Salah Al-Basri urged "the need for Iraq to present a map of the territorial sea and the economic zone at the United Nations and to enter into negotiations with neighboring maritime countries to guarantee its sovereign rights over this part of the sea that is restricted by the rules of international law."

 Meanwhile, Representative Amer Abdul-Jabbar Ismail recently disclosed, "the existence of Kuwaiti transgressions on Iraqi territorial waters through the presence of a Kuwaiti offshore oil platform 5 nautical miles from Khor Al-Khafga and 18 nautical miles from the Basra oil port, which is an infringement on Iraq's territorial sovereignty."