State-owned Emirati firm Dragon Oil this week announced that it has signed two memorandums of understanding (MoUs) relating to its expanding oil activities in Iraq.

According to a post on the company’s LinkedIn page, it signed deals last week with China’s Anton Oilfield Services (Antonoil) and Nohadh Al-Benaa for General Trading & Oilfield Contracting Services.

The report said that through the deals, the companies will jointly work to support consolidation of Dragon Oil’s existing footprint in Iraq, while also expanding infrastructure at its assets.

The company, a subsidiary of the Emirates National Oil Co. (ENOC), has had a presence in in Iraq for 12 years, having acquired a 30% stake in the production-sharing contract (PSC) for Block-9 in the southern Basra Governorate in 2013.

Last year, Dragon and Block 9’s Chinese operator United Energy Group (UEG, 70%) launched the central processing facility (CPF) at the concession’s Al-Faiha oilfield, enabling production to begin, targeting output of 100,000 bpd from the Yamamah, Mishrif and Zubair reservoirs.

Plans are also in place for associated gas from the field to be processed at a plant with a capacity of 125mn cubic feet (3.54mn cubic metres) per day.

UEG estimates that Block 9 holds combined 2P reserves and 2C resource in excess of 2.5bn barrels of oil equivalent that will be produced from the Yamama and Mishrif layers, as with other large deposits in south-eastern Iraq.

Dragon also holds assets in Turkmenistan and Egypt.

The latest deal follows a recent agreement with Sahool Al-Salam Oil Services, part of the Al-Amal Group, focusing on engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) work, as well as possible new investments in Iraqi oilfields.

Anton is the lead contractor for the supergiant Majnoon oilfield, where work is ongoing to raise production capacity to 450,000 barrels per day (bpd).

With reserves of nearly 13bn barrels and far higher resources, Majnoon, whose name translates as ‘insane’, is one of Iraq’s largest assets, but has so far failed to fulfil much of its potential.

In May last year, Anton was awarded the concession covering the Dhufriya oilfield in the eastern Wasit province during Licensing Rounds 5+ and 6. The bidding process, aimed at ramping up oil and gas output for domestic consumption, was dominated by Chinese firms, which secured a total of 10 licences.