ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s oil minister on Sunday said that more investment would be made towards power plants in other parts of the country to fill in the gaps in gas production, currently concentrated in the south, and to reduce dependency on neighboring countries.
“The recent inclination of the government and the oil ministry is to focus investments in the western, central, and eastern regions,” Hayyan Abdul Ghani, Iraqi oil minister said during the first Iraq exhibition and conference for oil projects and licensing rounds, in Baghdad.
According to Ghani, most oil and gas investment is focused on the southern provinces of Maysan, Dhi Qar, and Basra. The redistribution of investment is intended to address shortages in gas production and reducing Iraq’s heavy reliance on gas imports.
The Iraqi oil minister said that over the past three months, licenses have been provided for companies to invest in 11 gas exploration and three oil exploration blocks.
Ghani added that the national reserve stands at 6 billion barrels of crude oil and 32 billion cubic feet of gas.
Although Iraq has a massive wealth of oil and natural gas, it is still dependent on imported gas from Iran to operate the power plants in the country. In July the country lost nearly 5,000 megawatts of power when Iran stopped the supply of gas to the southern region of Iraq.
Days after the halt, Baghdad signed an agreement with Tehran to pay for imported gas using its crude oil and supply of natural resources to Iran.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani at the time said the deal will save Iraq money, enable it to continue providing power, while also paying for Iranian gas imports, and create stability until Baghdad completes its gas projects and achieves self-sufficiency.
A deal signed between Baghdad and French giant TotalEnergies to develop Iraq’s oil and gas sector, sees an initial investment of $10 billion to recover flared gas from oilfields in southern Iraq.
Gas flaring is the process of burning excess gas produced by oil wells that is not captured or used, and is a practice that Iraq is notorious for, being second only to Russia in terms of the amount of gas burned off.
