Turkish-led consortium wins third Iraq gas field

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: A consortium led by the Turkish Petroleum International Corporation won a deal to develop the gas field of al-Mansouriyah in eastern Iraq, the final field in Iraq‘s energy auction on Wednesday, the oil minister said. “The consortium grouping the Turkish TPAO, Kuwait Energy and the Korean Gas Corp. won the 4.5 trillion cubic feet (128 billion cubic meters) field of al-Mansouriyah in the restive province of Diala,” Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahrestani said. The consortium accepted the Iraqi Oil Ministry’s offer price of seven dollars per barrel of oil equivalent. They first offered 10 dollars per barrel of oil equivalent, with peak production of 320 million cubic feet (9.06 million cubic metres) per day. But their offer was rejected by the ministry. Earlier, a Kuwaiti-Turkish consortium won the right to develop the 1.1 trillion cubic feet (30.8 billion cubic metres) field of Siba in Iraq‘s southern province of Basra. Kuwait Energy and the Turkish TPAO companies offered a price of 7.50 dollars per barrel of oil equivalent with a targeted plateau of 100 million cubic feet (2.8 million cubic metres) per day. The Kuwaiti company takes 60 percent of the contract, while the Turkish company has the remaining 40 percent. The Kuwaiti-Turkish consortium beat Kazakhstan’s KazMunuaiGaz which offered a price of 16 dollars per barrel of oil equivalent with targeted plateau of 60 million cubic feet (1.68 million cubic metres) per day. Earlier, a consortium grouping South Korea KoGas and Kazakhstan ‘s KazMunuaiGaz, won the right to develop the giant gas field of Akkas in Iraq‘s western province of Anbar. The Akkas gas field has 5.6 trillion cubic feet (156 million cubic metres) of natural gas. The field is the first of the three gas fields submitted for bidding in Iraq‘s third energy auction in the Oil Ministry. Iraq has proven reserves of 112 trillion cubic feet (3.13 trillion cubic metres) of natural gas, but the country is only producing 1.5 billion cubic feet a day because of the poor infrastructure of the oil and gas industries. SH (S) 1