LUKOIL Awards Iraq Contract to Baker Hughes

HOUSTON, Aug. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- LUKOIL has awarded Baker Hughes (NYSE: BHI) a two-year contract to provide full drilling and completion services for 23 wells in the West Qurna field in southeast Iraq, 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of Basra.

Under the terms of the contract, Baker Hughes will provide engineering and project management for the turnkey drilling and completions scope of the project. Baker Hughes will supply drilling services, formation evaluation, casing and tubing running services, completion tools and services, wellbore intervention services, and wireline logging as well as perforation operations. Baker Hughes also will contract all third-party services, equipment, personnel, tools and materials required for the project, including the provision of up to five drilling rigs and three workover rigs.

Some of the wells will be drilled directionally, targeting the Mishrif formation, with step outs of up to 3,000 meters (9,842 feet). The wells are closely spaced, so the operation will employ a cluster (pad) drilling technique. The five drilling rigs and three workover rigs will be mounted on skids for fast, efficient rig moves.

Baker Hughes is well positioned in Iraq to execute the West Qurna project. In 2010 Baker Hughes opened a 120,000 square-meter (1.3 million square-feet) operations base in Basra to serve the Iraq oil and gas industry. The base includes a workshop to support a wide range of Baker Hughes products and services. The facility also houses chemical blending capabilities and inventory, as well as bulk drilling fluids storage for quick response to customers' requirements.

In addition to the LUKOIL drilling and completions award, Baker Hughes manages and operates drilling and workover rigs in the Zubair field for an international oil company. Baker Hughes also has a strategic alliance with the South Oil Company to support the development of Iraqi wireline capabilities; and supplies electrical submersible pumping (ESP) systems and services—including real-time remote monitoring and automation capabilities to optimize production—to three major international operators.

Baker Hughes provides reservoir consulting, drilling, formation evaluation, completions, pressure pumping and production products and services to the worldwide oil and gas industry.

SOURCE Baker Hughes