The Kurdistan Region of Iraq’s oil sector secured a major momentum boost on 26 October, with the announcement that a new 25,000 b/d production facility had been brought online at the Sarsang block. Once fully operational this will nearly double the block’s capacity and is the region’s first significant capacity addition in five years.

The Sarsang shareholders are US independent HKN (62%op), Canada’s Shamaran (18%) and the KRG (20%). Shamaran completed the purchase of TotalEnergies’ stake last month (MEES, 16 September). Production from the block has been running at just under 30,000 b/d so far this year (see chart). (CONTINUED - 468 WORDS)