| Kippreport.com

Gulf Keystone eyes profits in Kurdistan exports

April 12, 2011 12:37 by Reuters

An Iraqi government official said earlier in April that the two sides are likely to reach an agreement in the second half of 2011.

Gulf Keystone said it will be ready to start trucking oil to the export pipeline in six months time with initial output volumes of between 15,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) to 20,000 bopd possible.

Pipeline

Gulf Keystone is planning to build a pipeline to transport oil to the export pipeline which goes from Kurdistan through Turkey to enable it to export higher volumes in the longer term once Baghdad and Kurdistan reach an agreement on payments.

Gerstenlauer said it would cost between $80 million and $100 million to build a pipeline and take around 18 months.

The company would need to raise funds to build the pipeline, said Gerstenlauer, adding that it is currently fully funded for its activities for this year.

Exploration wells being drilled by Gulf Keystone this year could see its already huge reserves in Kurdistan boosted further should a well on the Ber Bahr block be successful.

“Structurally speaking, size-wise it’s close to being twice the size of Shaikan,” Gerstenlauer said of Ber Bahr.

Shares in Gulf Keystone traded up 2.7 percent to 162 pence at 1244 GMT valuing the company at around 1.2 billion pounds ($1.96 billion).

(Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Louise Heavens)

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Tags: government, Gulf Keystone, Iraq, Iraqi government, Kurdistan, Kurdistan petroleum, oil export, oil reserves, petroleum, pipeline