U.K. oil major BP PLC (BP) along with Iraq's South Oil Co. has announced a tender to drill 56 wells and work on several others as part of the company's 2010 program to develop Iraq's largest oil field, Rumaila, in the south, a senior Iraqi oil official said Wednesday.
"A number of companies have been invited to bid for the drilling contract including Weatherford [International Ltd. (WFT)] and Schlumberger [Ltd. (SLB)]," Abdul Mahdy al-Ameedi, head of the Iraqi oil ministry's petroleum contracts and licensing directorate, told Dow Jones Newswires.
He didn't name other companies, but separately an Iraqi oil official said Halliburton Co (HAL) and Baker Hughes Inc (BHI) were also invited.
Ameedi said that the development program of the field called for increasing production from the field by 110,000 barrels a day during this year. Rumaila, which holds oil reserves of 17 billion barrels, is currently producing 1.07 million barrels a day.
BP and China National Petroleum Corp., known as CNPC, signed a 20-year technical service contract in November last year to develop the field.