Iraq’s Ministry of Oil said Sunday it will hold its third energy auction to develop three gas fields on October 20, reported China’s Xinhua news agency.
The gas fields of Akkas in the western province of Anbar, Mansuriyah in eastern Diyala province and Siba in Basra to the south are up for bidding, an official from the ministry’s media office told Xinhua.
Earlier in May, Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani invited interested international energy firms to take part in the third round of bidding to develop the three gas fields on September 1, but the date was delayed to give the companies more time to scrutinise the contracts.
Shahristani said the third round of auctioning for the gas fields are “to meet Iraq’s increasing need for natural gas to provide new power plants that the country plans to build, and to develop the gas fields in order to export the natural gas to the world.”
The three gas fields have a total of 11.23 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves, according to the ministry figures.
Iraq has proven reserves of 112 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, however due to the poor upkeep of the country’s oil and gas infrastructure, the country is only producing 1.5 billion cubic feet a day.
Last year, Iraq held two energy auctions and signed contracts to develop a total of 12 oil fields across the country, aimed at giving the country the potential to increase its oil output capacity from the current roughly 2.5 million bpd to 12 million bpd in six or seven years.
Last week, Iraq announced that its proven oil reserves have increased to 143.1 billion barrels from the previous 115 billion figure, which helped push the country into second place in the world after Saudi Arabia.
