Shafaq News- Najaf

Drilling has begun on Shams 4, the fourth oil well in Iraq's southern province of Najaf, Governor Yousef Kanawi said on Friday, describing it as a step toward turning the province into an oil hub and an economic power.

The project will create jobs for residents and boost provincial revenues to fund reconstruction and development, Kanawi said.

The well lies in the Al-Qarnain block, an exploration area of about 8,773 square kilometers in Najaf's largely undeveloped desert along the Saudi border. China's state-owned ZhenHua Oil, which won the block in Iraq's 2024 licensing round, operates it through Qarnain Petroleum Company. The block's Shams-11 exploratory well, where drilling began in January, pointed to a potential discovery of about 8.8 billion barrels of light crude, with test production of 3,248 barrels a day.

In May, Kanawi said the province aimed to begin crude production from Al-Qarnain within a year. Preparations for another exploratory well were announced in July.

Najaf has three main oil areas, two of them exploration blocks shared with neighboring provinces, Unit 33 and Unit 36, according to Kanawi. The province's underground formations could hold up to 10 billion barrels of crude, Provincial Council chairman Hussein al-Issawi said in May.