Agencies
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani has urged the country’s oil and electricity ministers to step up their efforts to increase natural gas supplies to help meet growing energy demand and secure foreign investment for a liquefied natural gas import terminal.
At a special meeting held in Baghdad on Monday to discuss energy issues, Oil Minister Hayyan Abdul Ghani and Electricity Minister Ziad Ali Fadhil reported on the progress of “ongoing gas projects within the framework of the government programme,” Sudani’s office said in a statement.
The aim of the projects is to achieve “a significant reduction in associated gas flaring” at the country’s oilfields, where its utilisation is expected to remain at just 67% this year, the statement added.
The flaring of associated gas in Iraq has remained almost unchanged over the past three years, running at about 17 billion cubic metres per annum of gas, according to earlier estimates in the World Bank’s annual Global Gas Flaring Tracker report.
However, the Iraqi statement said the ongoing projects still aim to boost the gas utilisation rate to 80% by the end of 2025, with the country also confirming plans to eliminate flaring by the end of 2027.
In April, during Sudani’s visit to Washington, Iraqi and US companies signed memoranda of understanding to build processing facilities for associated gas produced at Iraqi oilfields, and to send dry gas to the country’s national power grid.
This effort is being led by Iraqi energy and utility company Raban Al Safina for Energy Projects (Rasep) and is focused on processing some 8.5 million cubic metres per day of raw gas at the Nahr Bin Omar field in the country’s Basra province.
The MoUs were signed by Rasep and US players KBR, Honeywell, Baker Hughes, Emerson and GE, a Rasep executive was quoted as saying by Iraqi media. In October, Iraq signed a binding agreement with Turkmenistan for supplies of natural gas for Iraq’s electricity production after Iraqi authorities agreed to an advance payment scheme and tax concessions, requested by Ashgabat.
As Turkmenistan and Iraq are not connected by a pipeline, the deal also includes the participation of Iran.
Iran will import gas from Turkmenistan and release gas from its own network to Iraq.
Sudani’s statement this week also noted that “global energy companies were encouraged to invest in natural gas fields [in Iraq], and plans were discussed to ensure a stable fuel supply for power generation stations in the coming months.” Iraqi government officials had also discussed the progress in attracting specialised US companies “to establish a fixed gas platform” at Grand Al Faw port in Basra province, according to the statement.
Earlier in December, the Iraqi government appointed South Gas Company to oversee a long-discussed plan to install a floating storage and regasification unit at Grand Al Faw, which is currently undergoing major infrastructure upgrades.
The aim of the FRSU project is to import natural gas from international markets to be used for electricity generation, according to authorities.
The Iraqi government said in November that it contracted KBR to assist in “formulating the best policy for operating the Grand Faw Port, adhering to international standards and the highest specifications for global port operations”. (upstream.com)
