Qatar's Al-Karkara & A-North Fields go on production

Qatar's Ministry of Energy and Industry today reported that the Al-Karkara and A-North Fields have come onstream with a combined output of approximately 6,000 b/d of oil.

Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, Qatar's second deputy premier and minister of energy and industry, said the two fields will see an increase in their output by 2008 of another 4,000 b/d once additional development of the fields has been completed. He said the increase will bring Qatar closer to its goal to be producing 6 million boe/d by 2010, with oil alone at about 1 million b/d.

Al-Attiyah said that the total cost of the development to date has been some US$167 million.
Both the Al-Karkara and A-North structure fields are in Qatar's Block 1SE, which is operated by Qatar Petroleum Development (QPD), a subsidiary of the Cosmo Oil Company.

According to al-Attiyah, the disposal of associated gas was the major challenge in the development of the fields, but QPD's development plan provided for gas produced during oil production to be re-injected into the reservoir and for there to be no gas flaring.