Shafaq News- Nineveh
Iraq’s Oil Ministry and Angola’s Sonangol discussed options for transporting, marketing, and exporting crude from the Qayyarah oil field in Nineveh on Wednesday, alongside plans to increase production and develop an integrated refinery.
In a statement, Deputy Oil Minister for Extraction Affairs Naseer Aziz Jabbar said the meeting focused on raising output from the heavy-oil field and improving access to domestic and export markets.
The planned refinery would allow more Qayyarah crude to be processed locally, increasing supplies of petroleum products and reducing the need to transport oil south for export through Khor Al-Zubair.
Qayyarah, one of Nineveh’s major fields, was awarded to Sonangol under Iraq’s second licensing round in 2009, with an initial target of around 120,000 barrels per day (bpd). Iraq Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative data put the Angolan company’s share in the venture at 75%, with the Iraqi side holding the remaining 25%.
Development was disrupted by the ISIS conflict in 2014, which damaged wells and other oil infrastructure across Nineveh. Output gradually resumed after Iraqi forces retook the area, recovering to more than 30,000 bpd.
A new expansion phase began in January 2025, when Sonangol contracted the Iraqi Drilling Company to drill 10 wells, with three additional appraisal wells optional. Plans also include a three-dimensional seismic survey covering 135 square kilometers to provide more accurate estimates of the site’s oil and gas resources.
Qayyarah’s heavy, high-sulfur crude requires specialized handling and processing, making refining capacity particularly important to its commercial viability. Planning Ministry data list the existing refinery’s capacity at 10,000 bpd in 2026, while lawmakers have previously advocated raising it to between 70,000 and 100,000 bpd after an earlier 70,000-bpd project stalled.
Nineveh currently produces around 38,000 bpd, with Qayyarah and the nearby Najma field accounting for about 55% of the province’s total.