The Iraqi Council of Ministers said – in a statement yesterday, Tuesday – that it had approved a contract worth $619 million with the Italian company Cesme to build gas facilities in the West Qurna 2 oil field in the south of the country.
The statement said that the agreement – which lasts for 33 months – stipulates that the group will undertake the rehabilitation of a gas processing plant and the construction of new gas facilities in the giant field managed by the Russian company Lukoil.
The deal is part of a series of contracts aimed at developing gas facilities that energy officials say will help Iraq stop burning gas associated with oil extraction and use the processed gas to generate electricity.
And it falls West Qurna 2 field 65 kilometers northwest of the southern port of Basra, with reserves amounting to about 14 billion barrels. The field’s initial production target in the first phase was 120,000 barrels per day, while the target for the second phase was 480,000 barrels per day, with the horizon of reaching a maximum production of 1.8 million. barrels per day, according to writer Simon Watkins.
Iranian gas
Iraq – a member state of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) – relies heavily on Iranian gas imports to operate its electrical network, but the United States pushed Baghdad to reduce dependence on Tehran.
More than a week ago, the United States of America announced that it had been extended for 4 months Exception period granted to Iraq from sanctions associated with dealing with Iran, allowing Baghdad to continue importing energy from Tehran.
Iraq continues to burn some of the extracted gas along with crude oil because it lacks the facilities necessary to process it and turn it into fuel for domestic consumption or export.
