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Iraq's Oil Exploration Company announced on 25 July 2026 that its third seismic team had completed fieldwork for the Sumer two-dimensional survey in Muthanna province. The project was carried out for Sinopec and covered 1,210.05 line kilometres. The company reported that field recording took 87 days, compared with a contractual period of 120 days, completing the work 33 days ahead of schedule.
The official account dates the contract to 24 March and the start of field activity to 17 April. It describes the use of vibrators as the seismic energy source. Desert terrain and unexploded ordnance were identified among the field challenges. These details concern acquisition conditions and execution performance; they do not supply the subsurface interpretation or demonstrate that a commercial hydrocarbon discovery has been made.
Two-dimensional seismic data can support decisions about exploration targets and later well placement. A completed acquisition program is therefore relevant to the pipeline of potential drilling work. However, the survey distance is measured in line kilometres and should not be treated as an area in square kilometres or as a number of wells. Interpretation and subsequent exploration decisions remain distinct stages from the field recording that the company says it completed.
For business-intelligence users, the disclosure provides a client, contractor, project area, survey method, acquisition scale and schedule comparison. It does not disclose contract value, discovered reserves, drilling commitments or exact future well coordinates. The early finish is a reported delivery result, not evidence of additional oil output. Later processing, interpretation and operator plans would be needed to assess how the dataset changes exploration priorities. Keeping those steps separate preserves the value of the completion milestone without overstating its geological implications.