Iraq plans to build three new plants to process natural gas currently being flared at southern oil fields, and use the fuel for power generation and to increase the nation’s income from energy exports, Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi has said.
Iraq is forced to flare some of the gas produced alongside crude oil, because it apparently lacks the facilities needed to capture and process it into usable fuel.
The country has just one gas processing company, the Basrah Gas Co – a joint venture between Iraq’s state-run South Gas Co, Shell and Mitsubishi.
“The ministry is seeking to end the flaring of associated gas in the next few years, despite the economic and financial challenges,” Luaibi said in an e-mailed statement to Reuters.
Iraq’s natural gas output will triple to 1,700mn cubic feet per day by 2018 as the nation implements projects to reduce flaring, Luaibi told an energy conference in Baghdad on April 2nd.
Iraq, OPEC’s second-largest crude producer after Saudi Arabia, is seeking to increase its oil and gas income, which accounts for nearly all its public budget.
