In December 2009, Rumaila’s daily average oil production rate was 1.066 million barrels per day (bpd) and falling. After 10 years of ROO’s stewardship, Rumaila’s production by June 2020 stood at 1.47 million bpd: an increase close to 40%.

This has been achieved in the face of what would otherwise be an oilfield with a production rate in steady decline, due to low or decreasing pressures rates in reservoirs, increasing volumes of water mixed with the oil, and recoverable oil becoming harder to reach.

Under ROO’s operatorship the field has seen:

• production increase 154% in the north of the field (from 382,000 to 969,000 bpd)
• high production from mature reservoirs in the south of the field
• production increase from the harder-to-access Mishrif reservoir increase from 150,000 bpd to 600,000 bpd
• consistent production above 1.2 million bpd for 10 years – a first for the field.

The oilfield has continued to operate and successfully produce oil for Iraq throughout this most difficult of times.

The field’s oil production rate averaged 1.392 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2020, 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.