DNO, the Norwegian oil and gas company, has signed a contract with ExxonMobil to participate in exploration work in the area of Baasikp exploration in the Kurdistan region.
According to the contract, DNO will have the rights to manage the drilling and exploration work in the licensed exploration area in the Baasheqa field, which owns 40% of the value of the shares, by acquiring half of ExxonMobil’s assets in the field. ExxonMobil will retain 40% of the shares. 20% of the shares and the provincial government will receive 20% of the interest rate.
Until KRG’s approval, DNO will start drilling an exploratory well in the field during the first half of 2018, followed by drilling a second exploratory well into separate construction equipment.
The area of 324 km2 is located 60 km west of Erbil and 20 km east of Mosul. ExxonMobil, the US oil and gas company, had previously conducted extensive geological and structural studies of the field and installed drilling equipment before the work was interrupted due to the security situation in the region.
Ba’asyika’s licensed area contains two large undeveloped exploration areas, which are expected to contain several important oil reserves according to seismic and chalk tests.
DNO is currently overseeing two other licensed plots in the region, one in the Tawki and Vishkhabur fields, both producing 110,000 barrels per day and the other in the Beninan and Bastura heavy oil fields, which are now under development and expansion. With three operational drilling facilities, DNO Norway is the most active drilling company among the international oil companies operating in the Kurdistan region.
