Kurdistan’s Tawke sea of oil for DNO as well flow hits record

Kurdistan’s Tawke sea of oil for DNO as well flow hits record

BY BRAIN SWINT

OSLO (Bloomberg) -- A well at DNO International and Genel Energy’s Tawke oilfield in northern Iraq flowed at a record rate, bolstering prospects for higher output from the region as it completes an export pipeline to Turkey.

The Tawke-23 well flowed at 32,500 bopd after horizontal drilling, DNO said in a statement in Oslo. The companies have initiated sales from the well, which is the second horizontal one to be drilled at the field.

“The exceptional results from Tawke-20 and Tawke-23 have fundamentally changed our approach to developing this field and also our expectations for its performance,” said Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani, DNO International’s executive chairman. "By any measure, these are prolific wells tapping into what increasingly feels like a sea of oil.’’

Kurdistan is building a pipeline to Turkey after years of disputes with the central government in Baghdad over oil payments. The Kurds expect to export 1 MMbopd by 2015 and 2 MMbopd by 2019, said Ashti Hawrami, the KRG’s minister of natural resources, in comments published on the government’s website on October 3.