Iraq’s natural gas production is set to rise significantly by 2050, with most of it coming from the type associated with oil extraction, and it is also seeking to reduce gas flaring, according to estimates issued by the Gas Exporting Countries Forum.
Natural gas production in Iraq doubled to 15 billion cubic meters by the end of 2022, compared to 5 billion cubic meters in 2013, according to the Gas Exporting Countries Forum report.
The country is making efforts to increase its production of these fossil fuels to support the electricity sector that relies on it to generate electricity, which is negatively affected by any crisis in importing it from abroad.
Iraq’s natural gas production is expected to rise to 55 billion cubic meters by 2050.
The report believed that most of the expected increase in production will come from gas associated with oil extraction, so that it will remain the country’s main source of that fossil fuel, representing 60% of Iraq’s production by 2050.
It is planned to extract associated gas in particular from the fields of West Qurna 2, Majnoon, Artawi, Tuba and Al-Lahis, which came as part of a deal with huge investments that the country signed with Total Energy last year. To support Iraq’s gas production, the project’s production capacity, upon completion, is scheduled to reach 6.7 billion cubic meters annually.
It is expected that gas condensates will play an essential role in the estimated growth of Iraq’s gas production throughout the forecast period, in light of the country’s goal to stop burning gas associated with oil operations within 3 years, especially since it is the third country that burns the most gas in the world by the end of 2022, after Russia and Iran. Approximately 18 billion cubic meters annually.
It is noteworthy that the assessments of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum regarding the rate of Iraq’s production of natural gas (15 billion cubic meters) in 2022 were significantly different from the figures of the British Energy Institute, and the annual statistics of the Energy Institute also show that Iraq’s production of natural gas recorded 9.4 billion. cubic meters in 2022, compared to 9.1 billion cubic meters in 2021.
shafaq.com
