CNPC Secures Contract to Drill Oil Wells in Iraq

China National Petroleum Corp's drilling subsidiary has won an engineering, procurement, and construction contract worth 1.4 billion yuan ($194 million) to drill wells with two rigs in Iraq's Rumaila oilfield, the company announced late Thursday.

According to a statement posted on the company's official WeChat account, the contract awarded to CNPC Daqing Drilling Engineering Co was the single largest overseas contract the company has secured in the last five years. The number of wells to be drilled under the contract was not specified in the statement.

Daqing Drilling began drilling wells in the Rumaila oilfield in 2010, shortly after CNPC and BP signed a 20-year service contract with Baghdad to develop the massive oilfield.

According to an Iraqi state oil official, Iraq planned to increase its oil production capacity to around 7 million barrels per day by 2027, with the main increases coming from Rumaila and West Qurna-2.