Iraqi Oil Minister Hayyan Abdul Ghani confirmed on Thursday that the ministry is working to achieve self-sufficiency in gas during the next five years, referring to the launch of two rounds of licenses to explore oil and gas fields, in this regard.
Abdul Ghani said in a statement to the UAE news agency “Wam”, on the sidelines of the activities of the eighth OPEC international conference in Vienna, that the first licensing round included more than 10 oil and gas fields in western Iraq, and the second includes 13 fields and exploratory sites on the western border, which will enable Iraq to produce more than one billion and 500 million cubic feet of gas.
He added that Iraq has large reserves of up to 144.5 billion cubic meters of oil, and more than 133 trillion standard cubic feet of gas.
He pointed to a contract with “BP” to develop the Rumaila field, which is one of the large fields in Iraq, and currently produces one million and 380 thousand barrels of oil per day, in addition to its gas in large quantities.
“We have contracts with Eni to develop the Zubair oil field, which currently produces 450,000 barrels of oil per day, as well as contracts in West (Qarna 1) with ExxonMobil to produce 380 thousand barrels of oil per day, in addition to contracts with LUKOIL in the West Qurna region to develop a field with a production of up to 410,000 barrels per day, in addition to other contracts in different regions,” Abdul Ghani continued.
He stressed that the production capacity of oil in Iraq currently reaches 5.4 million barrels per day, while the total current production under OPEC’s share reaches 4.43 million barrels per day, with the country looking forward to promising plans to raise production capacity to 6 million barrels per day through licensing contracts concluded with companies during the next phase.
On the contribution of oil and gas to the GDP of the State of Iraq, the minister explained that the contribution of oil constitutes the largest part of his country’s GDP, as 90% of the country’s imports depend on oil wealth.
With regard to efforts to reduce carbon emissions, Abdul Ghani indicated that Iraq has taken great steps in investing in natural gas as a source of clean energy, as the investment is concentrated in southern Iraq, through the “Basra Gas” company, a joint alliance that includes “South Gas”, “Shell” and “Mitsubishi” companies, and since its establishment, it has been able to implement promising projects, led by the Basra “NGL” project, which includes an investment of 400 million cubic feet of gas.
He added, “The first phase of the project was opened last May with a capacity of up to 200 million cubic feet of gas, while the second phase of the project is expected to be completed by the end of this year 2023, contributing to reaching 400 million cubic feet of natural gas.”
He pointed out that there are investments in 5 oil fields, which are Majnoon, West Qurna 2, Al-Has, Al-Tuba and Al-Saba, which will provide 600 million cubic feet of gas, which will enhance the contribution to meeting electric power needs.