Officials said ExxonMobil would inject 12 million barrels of water per
day from the Gulf into the wells. They said Exxon would share the costs of
the project with companies selected to manage the wells, including Russia's
LUKoil, Italy's Eni and Royal Dutch Shell.
The Oil Ministry has determined that water-injection would be required
to maximize production of the southern oil fields. Baghdad has sought to
increase oil production to up to four million barrels per day.
Meanwhile, in other energy news, Algeria has announced plans to sharply increase natural gas exports.
Algerian Energy Minister Chekib Khelil said the North African state
intends to increase gas exports by more than 50 percent by 2016. Khelil said
the exports would increase starting in 2010 and reach 85 billion cubic
meters per year by 2015.
"Algeria's natural gas exports will be strengthened following the
operation of the third MedGaz pipeline," Khelil said on April 17. "This
pipeline will have a capacity of eight million cubic meters by next July."
Officials said Algeria also plans to complete a gas pipeline that would
reach Italy via Tunisia. MedGaz was designed to link Algeria to Spain.
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