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Basra, Iraq, September 2024: The Rumaila Operating Organisation (ROO) through the Rumaila Social Welfare Fund (SWF) has funded the Shatt Al-Basra Road Paving Project. It was completed in July 2024. The road was officially opened in a ceremony on 25 July, attended by His Excellency Hayan Abdul Ghani, Deputy PM for Energy Affairs, Mr. Bassim Abdulkareem, Basra Oil Company (BOC) DG, as well as Zaid Elyaseri, President bp Iraq, Mr. Emad Hassan Lafta, Rumaila Operating Organisation (ROO) GM, and local Sheiks.
The road, measuring 4.6km in length and 6 metres in width, will ease traffic congestion on existing roads and will be the main road connecting Al Khora village and the Qarmat Ali Water Treatment Plant to Basra city centre. It also supports civil planning for the long-term improvement of the area.
As part of this project, the paving of Abu Sukhair main road and branch roads of Al Khora village were also completed.
The Shatt Al-Basra Road Paving Project is part of a wider programme of local community support delivered by ROO through the Social Welfare Fund (SWF), working with local authorities and Rumaila’s stakeholders to support local communities.
ROO General Manager, Emad Hassan Lafta, said: “The SWF team have worked hard over a number of years to engage with neighbouring communities, to understand their concerns and work in partnership with local authorities, through the SWF, to address them. ROO will continue to identify opportunities to deliver more road paving projects, connecting villages close to the Rumaila oilfield to increase accessibility for people living in these areas.”
ROO General Manager, Orkhan Guliyev, commented: “All of us here at Rumaila are committed to supporting the neighbouring communities and the Shatt Al-Basra paving project is a demonstration of this commitment.”
ROO Special Deputy General Manager, Liu Zundou, added: “I want to thank everyone at ROO for their continued hard work and dedication to the Rumaila oilfield, it is thanks to them that we are able to deliver community projects that make a difference to the lives of those living in the local neighbourhoods.”
ROO has continued its support to neighbouring communities through making arrangements for the provision of innovative laparoscopic equipment to Zubair General Hospital, using funding provided by the Rumaila Social Welfare Fund (SWF). The equipment was handed over on 18 March by BOC Director General, Bassem Abdul Karim, and ROO General Manager, Emad Hassan Lafta, and will be the first of its kind in use in Basra’s public hospitals. This marks an important enhancement to equipment at Zubair hospital, as an ECHO machine was provided with the support of the Rumaila SWF to the same hospital in 2014.
Installation of the equipment was completed by Iraqi healthcare specialists. Under these arrangements, the local supplier is responsible for ensuring the future availability of parts and carry out ongoing maintenance. Staff at Zubair General Hospital will also receive specialist training to operate the instruments.
The new equipment, which comprises a thin, flexible tube with a miniature high accuracy 4k imaging system to capture images, can carry out minimally invasive surgical procedures in the abdomen and will facilitate the quick diagnosis and treatment of disease. It will enhance surgical interventions by improving visibility for surgeons and enable the efficient diagnosis of conditions including appendicitis, pelvic inflammatory diseases and liver and ovarian cancer.
ROO General Manager, Emad Hassan Lafta, shared: “We recognize the role that Rumaila plays in the lives of people in the Basra governorate and remain committed to supporting those living closest to us. It is a great pleasure to be able to assist Zubair General Hospital and its patients with this equipment, which will enable the treatment and diagnosis of serious diseases. We hope the new laparoscopic tools will contribute to good outcomes for patients and make a difference in the lives of many Basrawis.”
The introduction of the laparoscopy equipment was made possible thanks to the Rumaila Social Welfare Fund and ROO’s commitment to supporting those living in areas bordering the Rumaila oilfield.
Doctor Layth Bahaa, Zubair General Hospital Manager, added: “This multi-use equipment is essential to carrying out laparoscopy procedures that enable clinicians to diagnose and, in some cases, treat conditions such as pelvic inflammatory diseases, appendicitis and abdominal cancers, as well as carry out vascular and oncology surgeries. The use of this latest technology will enhance patient safety, promote faster healing and reduce the length of hospital stays, supporting more efficient patient diagnosis and treatment.”
Basra, Iraq, June 2022: The first stage in a major project to create state-of-the-art digital connectivity at Rumaila has been completed with the laying of the first 45km of a 2,000km fibre optic cabling network. The network will be the foundation for increased automation of the oilfield, enabling the rollout of the latest digital technologies to optimize daily business performance. This in turn will underpin sustained production in the years ahead and make Rumaila one of the most digitally advanced oilfields in the Middle East.
Fibre optic cabling will replace the existing microwave network and is one of the most ambitious information technology projects ever undertaken by the Rumaila Operating Organisation (ROO). It will comprise a 150km core ring connecting main hub stations from the south to the north of the field, from which extensions will reach all key facilities. The first 45km completed in Phase 1 forms the southern part of this ring; during 2022, this will be extended to reach all remaining degassing stations and cluster pump stations. Then, from 2023, other facilities such as wells and electrical submersible pumps will be connected. The 2,000km of fibre optic cabling required in total is the equivalent of running a cable from Basra to Istanbul.
The network will help transform the operation. It will enable deeper automation of many aspects of activity at Rumaila by providing increased bandwidth, faster data speeds, greater reliability and high levels of security. This will unlock the potential for new ways of working and add richer functionality for all facilities across the field. This includes: making a substantial difference to the real-time applications that monitor various systems, providing richer interpretation of data; facilitating staff in carrying out essential field activity remotely; simplifying secure data management by reducing the need for separate servers and network storage; and opening the door for the introduction of artificial intelligence tools and other business-critical applications.
ROO General Manager, Madhi Abdul-Razzaq Swadi, said: “This is a really exciting development and takes our recent history of investing in IT and communications infrastructure to a new level. Great credit goes to our people from across a number of teams who are working together to fully integrate all of these developments.”
ROO Deputy General Manager, Orkhan Guliyev, commented: “Rumaila will become one of the most digitally advanced fields in the Middle East region, thanks to this landmark project. It gives us a really strong foundation for future development and moreover, the foundations for future remote operations.”
Rumaila Special Deputy General Manager, Liu Zundou, added: “This will enhance integration and co-operation at Rumaila. It will improve speed of communication, as well as delivering stability and security, and should improve the daily working environment for our workforce.”
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Basra, Iraq, November 2021: One of the most advanced water pumping facilities in Iraq has been constructed at the Rumaila oilfield to help boost oil production and support the field’s long-term strategy. Cluster Pump Station Six (CPS-6) is the first CPS facility to be built at Rumaila for around 40 years. It is also the first CPS constructed by the Rumaila Operating Organisation (ROO), the joint venture between the Basra Oil Company (BOC), bp, PetroChina and State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO), which operates the field.
Water injection is fundamental for sustaining Rumaila’s high volumes of oil production. After almost 70 years of extracting oil, gas, and water, Rumaila’s mature reservoirs have seen pressure levels fall; injecting water into the subsurface helps to replace this lost pressure and push oil and gas to the surface. Since CPS-6 has become fully operational, 18 formerly producing wells have been reactivated and around 63,000 additional barrels of oil per day are being produced for Iraq.
ROO Deputy General Manager, Hussein Abdul Khadim Hussein, said: “Rumaila’s daily oil production has increased by around 40% under ROO’s stewardship. Key to this has been the water injection strategy, which rose from around 250 mbds in June 2010 to reach peaks exceeding 1.5 million barrels of water per day (bwpd) in 2021. CPS-6 marks a new chapter as we extend water injection to the south of the field for the first time in more than a decade and will help us to maintain high oil production for years to come.”
Cluster pump stations pressurize treated industrial water to a specified level, which is then sent for injection into water injector wells in the field. With a capacity to inject up to 320,000bwpd, CPS-6’s features include digital monitoring of the site’s key equipment and components to manage pressure levels and ensure performance is maximized from the purpose-built control room. The site has a pumping house with five powerful Sulzer pumps, each individually capable of pressurizing up to 80,000bwpd; a manifold to direct water to 20 injector wells; 2.5 km of piping inside the facility; 75 km of supporting pipeline infrastructure outside the facility, and an office for staff.
Construction entailed more than a million hours of work, and the installation of 16,700 metres of electrical cabling, 1,721 flanges and 575 valves. Multiple logistical challenges had to be overcome in order to adapt to the pandemic and to create a COVID-safe working environment, which included erecting fences inside the compound to delineate which contractor could operate in each part of the site.
ROO General Manager, Orkhan Guliyev, said: “The full operation of CPS-6 is a major milestone in our drive to maintain oil production in the south of the field. For the past 11 years, water injection has been focused in North Rumaila – which has seen production increase by more than 150%. Safely injecting water in South Rumaila is a key part of ROO’s strategy for future success.”
Rumaila Special Deputy General Manager, Fan Jianping, added: “Work has also begun to construct a second new pumping station, CPS-7, which will further our ambitions to ensure the reservoirs in South Rumaila continue to produce effectively and efficiently.”
Basra, Iraq, 10 May 2021: The Rumaila Operating Organisation (ROO) today announced its 2020 performance results. The field’s oil production rate averaged 1.392 million barrels per day (bpd), despite the impact of COVID-19, a budget reduction and compliance with instructions from BOC to reduce oil production, which reflected OPEC+’s request for Iraq to curtail oil exports.
The year’s strong performance has been attributed to the dedication of the field’s workforce (which is 96% Iraqi) to adapt to and overcome major new challenges. These included a revised and reprioritized production strategy, which benefitted from the strong foundations laid in previous years to modernize facilities, optimize wells and deploy advanced technologies.
Basra Oil Company (BOC) Director General, Mr Khalid Hamza Abbas, said: “Rumaila’s achievements in 2020 deserve great recognition, not least within the context of the global pandemic. My thanks go to every member of staff who did his or her utmost to ensure the field continued to serve the nation at this most difficult time.”
Rumaila’s 2020 achievements included record-breaking levels of water injection, averaging 1.35 million bpd of water – volumes never previously seen at the field. New digital technologies were deployed to maximize efficiencies; 21 new wells were drilled, 115 wells were optimized or renewed, and almost 7,000 well services jobs were conducted to further maintain production, while preventative maintenance and repairs ensured the continued performance of ageing facilities. In addition, new projects were initiated to reduce Rumaila’s operational carbon emissions, particularly utilizing electricity from the gas-fired Rumaila Power Plant, rather than diesel generators, to power some key facilities in the field.
Rumaila also continued to support local communities living near or within the field during the pandemic, with ongoing initiatives to help the Al-Khora Primary Health Care Clinic and the North Rumaila Mobile Health Clinic; ROO also oversaw and delivered the procurement, shipping, installation and training on a computed tomography (CT) scanner for the Basra Al-Sadir Teaching Hospital. Major renovation works also took place at Al Sikak, Al Rumaila and Al Nukhaila schools in order to enhance the quality of local education.
With the onset of the pandemic, global oil demand contracted, resulting in the already low international oil price falling further and causing governments and companies around the world to review their plans. Iraq was no exception and resulted in the ROO’s annual budget reduced by around 30%, with adverse impacts on some development projects and well and production-raising activities. In addition, government-requested curtailments averaged 55,000 bpd over the course of the year, partly in response to Iraq’s compliance with OPEC+’s request to reduce the country’s overall oil exports.
2020 was therefore a year defined by COVID-19. It has always been ROO’s commitment to place the health and safety of staff members above all other considerations. COVID-19 therefore required multiple preventative and responsive activities to limit the transmission of the virus. Field personal protective equipment (PPE) was sourced and distributed, including 300,000 sets of gloves, 20,000 masks, and 1,300 units of hand sanitizing products. Two new clinics were established; additional respiratory and life support equipment were secured; 4,370 diagnostic tests were carried out; contact tracing was instigated after each suspected and confirmed COVID-19 case, and wellbeing initiatives were introduced.
Operationally, the field had to adapt to major disruptions to the way everyday work was delivered. Field staff had to contend with working fewer, yet longer shifts patterns; movement was restricted at Rumaila headquarters which is staffed by a limited number of Iraqi and international colleagues who all adhered to strict quarantining protocols on arrival; hundreds of Iraqi and expatriate staff adapted to working from home. A new IT terminal server enabled staff working remotely in Basra and around the world to securely access emails, files and industry applications, while the number of videoconferencing users increased 960%.
“With the virus making its way to Iraq, we knew we had to do everything we could to keep our people as safe as possible while at work,” said ROO Deputy General Manager, Hussein Abdul Khadim Hussein. “We also had to move quickly, to ensure that the day-to-day operation of the entire field could be maintained, so that Rumaila could continue to deliver for Iraq. The human cost of COVID-19 has been felt by everyone at Rumaila; to everyone affected, we extend our deepest sympathies.”
ROO General Manager, Orkhan Guliyev, said: “The tremendous co-operation and teamwork between BOC, bp and PetroChina, which in previous years had been key to Rumaila surpassing targets, expressed itself in 2020 through a shared sense of resilience. The determination, dedication, patience and endurance of our people enabled us to continue to make progress during what was an extraordinarily challenging year for everyone.”
Rumaila Special Deputy General Manager, Fan Jianping, added: “It has been a difficult operating environment for national and international oil companies across the world. At Rumaila, it has been humbling to see such strength of purpose in overcoming complex challenges. 2020 has further illustrated that our partnership has the focus, fortitude and capability to face tough challenges.”
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