Japan's Cosmo Energy Holdings Co Ltd said on Friday it has signed a new agreement with Qatar Energy to continue its operation in the Al-Karkara and A-Structures offshore oil fields, which came into effect after the expiry of the current contract this month.
Japan's Qatar Petroleum Development (QPD), 75% owned by Cosmo Energy Exploration & Production and 25% by trading house Sojitz Corp , has been developing and producing crude oil in the fields, located offshore Qatar, for 25 years since the signing of the current contract in 1997.
Japan's third-biggest oil refiner declined to comment on details of the new agreement, but it is a 5-year agreement, succeeding the development and production sharing agreement signed in Dec. 1997, Qatar Energy said in a separate statement.
The fields started production in March 2006, and since then have produced a total of 33.5 million barrels of crude oil, according to Qatar Energy.
Cosmo's oil output stood at 45,157 barrels per day in the financial year ended in March 2022, a company spokesman said.
(Reuters - Reporting by Yuka Obayashi, Editing by Louise Heavens)