Chinese firm EBS this week reported that it had held meetings with Iraq’s Ministry of Oil (MoO) to discuss plans for the East Baghdad oilfield.

In a post on LinkedIn, EBS said that general manager Ma Cheng and his delegation had met with Deputy Minister for Upstream Affairs, Basim Mohammed Khudhair, and representatives from the Petroleum Contracts and Licensing Directorate on January 8.

EBS provided an update on oil production, with talks also covering on plans for the development of East Baghdad South and raising production at the broader asset.

EBS, a local Iraqi subsidiary of China ZhenHua Oil Co., itself a subsidiary of the state-owned China North Industries Group (Norinco), has engaged the Iraqi Drilling Co. (IDC) and China Oilfield Services Ltd (COSL) on a 27-well drilling campaign. At least 16 of these have now been drilled.

In August, the field was reported by MOC to be producing 30,000 barrels per day, with peak production under the contract signed with EBS in 2018 envisaged at 40,000 bpd. However, during a visit to the field in April, Oil Minister Hayan Abdulghani said the ministry plans to expand oil production to over 80,000 bpd, and dry gas to 50mn cubic metres per day.

In December 2023, the Ministry of Oil’s (MoO) Midland Oil Co. (MOC) opened a crude processing facility (CPF) at the field. MOC director general, Muhammad Yassin Hassan inaugurated the field’s first CPF during a ceremony in which he thanked China ZhenHua Oil.

EBS is also working on a project to extend a pipeline over a distance of 75 km to transport crude oil from the field to the Zubaidiya power station in Wasit Governorate as well as the development of the 130,000 bpd Ahdab field. Abdulghani stressed that one of the primary goals of development and increased production from the field is to supply the al-Quds and Zubaidiya power stations with good quantities of crude oil and dry gas for the Bismayah power station.

The East Baghdad concession was offered for development by IOCs during Iraq’s second licensing round in December 2009, but received no bids, prompting Baghdad to proceed alone to rehabilitate and raise production at the field. The field is estimated to have recoverable reserves of 4.67bn barrels of oil and 9.3 trillion cubic feet (263bn cubic metres) of gas, and the relative paucity of production is largely the result of the heavy population density in the area above it.

In June last year, the field was the focus of a pilot project financed by carbon credits to capture and process 12mn cubic feet (0.340 mcm) per day of associated gas.