Gas Plus Khalakan (GPK) suspended operations at its Shewashan oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan last year and has now walked away from the field, MEES learns. The field, which shareholders claimed would produce 10,000 b/d by 2016 (MEES, 25 March 2016), failed to even hit 4,000 b/d and was producing a mere 1,000 b/d last year before production was halted altogether. The main culprit was water-cut issues which also saw output phenomenally collapse at nearby Taq Taq (MEES, 31 March 2017). Despite the disappointing news, the KRG’s recovering oil sector has cause for considerably optimism: MEES forecasts that total oil output from the region could exceed 500,000 b/d by the end of the year (MEES, 15 March).