Shell Iraq today announced a final investment decision (FID) taken by the Basrah Gas Company (BGC) on its growth programme, which will increase BGC’s current capacity by 40%. FID was taken on 31st January 2019, with support of all shareholders in the BGC Joint Venture: South Gas Company, Shell and Mitsubishi.
The programme will capture flared gas from the three major oilfields Rumaila, West Qurna 1 and Zubair and convert it into dry gas for power generation and liquids for the domestic market and for exports.
At the heart of the new development is the Basrah Natural Gas Liquids (Basrah NGL) project; a 400 million standard cubic feet per day greenfield gas processing plant at Ar Ratawi, equipped with two trains, each with a gas processing capacity of 200 mmscf/d.
The growth programme also enables a step-change to more, higher-margin refrigerated liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) exports from the refurbished and expanded storage and marine terminal at Um Qasr port in Basrah.
“With BGC having recently achieved a new production level of over 1 bcf/d, Shell Iraq is proud to have now also reached this growth milestone with an industry-leading competitive project which can reduce gas flaring from the three Basrah oil fields, thus increasing dry gas supply and NGL export capabilities. This will bring significant and widespread societal benefit to the Basrah region in terms of jobs, the environment and security of energy supply”, said Marcus Antonini, vice president for Shell Iraq.
Gas flaring is a significant waste of Iraq’s natural resources leaving the country to suffer from inadequate supplies of fuel and power. Flaring is also a heavy environmental burden as it contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. The BGC growth programme will help address these issues, by capturing flared gas, thus mitigating waste and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
