Iraqi Oil Minister Hayan Abdul-Ghani said, in an interview with “The Future of Energy on Al-Arabiya,” that contracts to exploit gas will make it unnecessary for imports from Iran, and we will turn into a gas-exporting country.
Abdul-Ghani explained that Iraq opened the first associated gas projects with “Shell” with a capacity of 200 million cubic feet, adding: “It is scheduled to open another gas project by the end of this year with a capacity of 200 million cubic feet.”
He added that Iraq has signed contracts with the “Total” company for associated gas with a capacity of 600 million cubic feet, which will be opened within 3-5 years.
He revealed that within the fifth licensing round, 3 companies have been signed to invest associated gas from 5 oil rights located in the eastern region of Iraq.
And he indicated that two rounds of licensing have been launched, including 11 gas and oil fields within the fifth complementary round, while the sixth round includes about 13 gas exploration sites in the western borders of Iraq.
He continued, “Iraq imports large quantities of gas from Iran in the summer to operate power plants.”
He pointed out that Iraq’s current oil capacity is 5.4 million barrels per day, and we plan, through contracts signed with many international oil companies, to reach production capacity of at least 6-7 million barrels per day within 5 years.
“We are serious about adhering to our share within OPEC Plus,” according to Abdul-Ghani.
It is worth noting that the Iraqi Ministry of Oil announced the completion of drilling and reclamation of 86 oil wells.
“The company has achieved drilling the 24th well in the field at a depth of 3079 meters, in cooperation with Halliburton,” said the general manager of the Iraqi Drilling Company, Khaled Hamza.
He added, “This comes within the contract concluded with the Basra Oil Company to drill 43 oil wells in the Majnoon oil field.”
