Tawke PSC
Oil from the Tawke area has been seeping out the ground and used by the local population for several thousand years, making the field highly interesting for DNO from the companies’ first entry into Kurdistan. The DNO process began with geological fieldwork that mapped the surface structures, followed by a coarse 2D seismic grid shot, and then first exploration well spudded in late November 2005. By Christmas that year, first oil had been reported from the well.
Only one exploration well was necessary to “discover” the Tawke field, a discovery that signified an important breakthrough in Northern Iraq. Based on the positive result from this well, the first 3D seismic in Iraq was shot in 2006, paving the way to further successful delineation drilling. Test production from the Tawke field commenced in June 2007, marking another important milestone for partners DNO and the Kurdistan Regional Government.
DNO was the first company in Northern Iraq to export of oil from the field in June 2009. As noted above, Tawke facilities have the sustainable capacity to export more than 70,000 barrels a day, and in the summer of 2011, a revised, independent study estimated more than double the reserves at Tawke, from 306 to more than 615 million barrels.
License: Tawke PSC
Share: 55%
Operator: DNO
Status: Producing/exploration
Extractable resources: 615 million barrels of oil
Dohuk PSC
The Dohuk PSC area is located just outside the city of Dohuk. At the present time, there is no production taking place here, but exploration efforts are showing promising results,. At the Summail prospect, hydrocarbons in the shape of natural gas were detected at an early stage during the drilling of exploration well Summail-1, with a flow of 4 million standard cubic feet of gas per day - even when restricted. Promising hydrocarbon shows have been encountered deeper in the well, a finding that shows the need for a number of production tests to be performed.
License: Dohuk PSC
Share: 40%
Operator: DNO
Status: Exploration
Erbil PSC
At the Erbil PSC, a rough 2D seismic mapping was collected and the interpretation showed the location of the first exploration well, Hawler-1. This well proved oil in Jurassic reservoirs, and a subsequent 3D seismic survey was designed over the field, also designed to cover the Bastora lead. The results were positive, showing that from the 3D that Bastora is much larger than earlier anticipated as concluded by the 2D seismic tests.
The Bastora-1 exploration well confirmed the possibility of a commercially viable field discovery, and there was an opportunity to retrieve more out of the reservoir through a horizontal well, the first such horizontal well drilled in Kurdistan. The results from this horizontal well showed that the production rates were five-fold compared to what was originally seen in the vertical well.
A declaration of commerciality has been filed for both Benenan and Bastora.
License: Erbil PSC
Share: 40%
Operator: DNO
Status: Exploration