After experiencing the adverse effects of the pandemic, as international oil prices continue to rise, the Iraqi drilling engineering market is recovering strongly. On March 6^th, the ZPEC Zhenhua-EBS Project resumed drilling in the East Baghdad Oilfield in Iraq. The Zhenhua-EBS Project is the fourth project after the ZPEC Schlumberger, ENI, and Petronas Projects in the Iraq market. With the recent resumption of work and production of multiple projects, the production pace of ZPEC in Iraq has also begun to accelerate and will return to normal production, along the track of stable development.

At 4:00 pm on March 6^th, as the rapidly rotating drill bit drilled into the East Baghdad Oilfield, the ZPEC Zhenhua-EBS Project successfully started drilling and resumed work. This is the first drilling package project of the ZPEC Iraq Branch that resumed smoothly this year. Its safe and smooth resumption of work and production has laid a solid foundation for the completion of ZPEC’s annual mission and goals. This resumption of work has created the fastest relocation record in the East Baghdad Oilfield. The relocation needed to span 80 kilometers of inter-provincial highways.  ZPEC Drilling Team 23 completed the trans-provincial move of all the materials and equipment from the old well in only 4 days. The performance of the entire relocation operation was highly recognized and praised by Party A.

In January of this year, Zhenhua-EBS Project received a notification letter from Party A for resumption of work. In less than half a month, the first batch of 12 Chinese resumption personnel from the ZPEC Iraq Branch arrived at the Baghdad site and completed Party A’s HSE pandemic prevention requirements. After quarantine and nucleic acid testing, the unfavorable local security situation was overcome and other follow-up work items were adjusted in time. During the Spring Festival, the on-site personnel overcame numerous difficulties, stuck to their posts, and steadily promoted various moving measures, allowing the contract signing with a third-party service company to be completed in advance, and allowing first-time coordination with the moving company. Because of local reasons, Party A temporarily changed the location of the well before the move. After the new well road survey and the well site confirmation, the ZPEC Iraq Branch and the Project Department coordinated with the oil field as quickly as possible without additional costs. The relationship between all parties has enabled the maximum handling capacity of 50 vehicles per day and 8 cranes operating at the same time. Since the replacement new well is more than 200 meters deeper than the original well, it was necessary to drill through the complex shale section, which increased the technical difficulty and risk. ZPEC’s Technical Team worked day and night and completed the design and construction plan of the new well at the fastest speed, thus ensuring each link being constructed safely and smoothly with the drilling being restarted for the first time.

Up to now, 6 drilling rigs in 4 projects have fully resumed in the ZPEC Iraq market, namely the ZPEC ENI Project, the Schlumberger Project, the Zhenhua-EBS Project, and the Petronas Project.  Two of the ZPEC BP Projects will also resume work in May of this year.