Majnoon Island is an island in southern Iraq near Al-Qurnah that is a center for oil production of the Majnoon Oilfield. The area was built out of sand dunes and mud to create pathways for oil pipelines.
Before the Gulf War, roughly a sixth of Iraq's oil reserves, some 7 million barrels (1,100,000 m3), passed through this island. Production quickly recovered after the site was a center of fighting in the Iran-Iraq War, particularly Operation Kheibar in 1984. However, following the imposition of United Nations sanctions and the 2003 Iraq War, production has presently reduced to 46,000 barrels per day (7,300 m3/d).
In December 2009, the Iraqi government awarded a license to a joint venture from Royal Dutch Shell and Petronas to take over operations at Majnoon Oilfield, and triple production from the estimated reserve of 13 billion barrels (2.1×109 m3) at a fee rate of $1.39/barrel. The joint venture company is 25% held by the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, 45% by Shell and 30% by Petronas.
Famous quotes containing the word island:
“The shifting islands! who would not be willing that his house should be undermined by such a foe! The inhabitant of an island can tell what currents formed the land which he cultivates; and his earth is still being created or destroyed. There before his door, perchance, still empties the stream which brought down the material of his farm ages before, and is still bringing it down or washing it away,—the graceful, gentle robber!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)