The licence covers the entire Salah ad-Din region – about 24,000 square kilometres in northern Iraq. The licence area includes several existing oil fields, such as Ajeel, Hamrin, Tikrit, and Balad, which potentially contain several billion barrels of oil. Existing discoveries and fields have historically belonged to Iraq’s central government and separate negotiations are required for permission to take them over and operate them for Salah ad-Din and the licence holder, i.e. Crown Energy. Despite the large, obvious commercial discoveries, production has been limited. Activities have been hampered due to the political instability of the last 20 years.

The security situation in the region has improved significantly since 2016 and discussions with the regional authorities have confirmed that the region is virtually free from crisis hot spots. The circumstances currently seem much more positive than previously, although some areas are still risky to operate in.

In addition to the oil fields mentioned above, there are  many fields that have been drilled and partially tested. We are interested in finding out if these fields can start producing in  a  simple operation by only drilling a few more times and with equipment suitable for initial production. This would make the asset a considerable success and numerous discussions are under way with government authorities and potential partners for such a project. A couple of structures have  been identified to  determine if this would be possible. Some of them are located near  the main town of Tikrit, which also facilitates the logistics.

The Iraq asset has been incorporated into the Company’s CPR since May 2015. Following a technical analysis of new and existing data, both prospective and contingent resources have been found   in the Iraq asset. A technical analysis  of  the  licence  conditions was conducted in 2016. This resulted in Crown Energy creating an extra margin of safety for a potential participating interest which the region (the Salah ad-Din Governorate) may be entitled to under certain circumstances according to the licence conditions.

Crown Energy is now working on initiating operating activities by planning for initial geological and technical operations and field project planning in the region covered by the Company’s production sharing contract. In collaboration with Crown Energy’s strategic partner, Italian engineering firm Proger, the Company is examining existing infrastructure and  technical capabilities and is also reviewing present and past geological and geophysical activities.