Soon: Iraq to export gas to Europe

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraq will “soon” become a natural gas exporter to Europe via a pipeline that passes through neighboring countries and the Mediterranean, two Iraqi lawmakers said on Saturday. “The European Union (EU) showed a serious intention to import natural gas from Iraq,” lawmaker Mohammed Khalil from the Kurdistan Alliance (KA) told IraqiNews.com news agency. “This will represent new funding sources as important as crude oil revenues,” he said. For his part, the deputy head of the Iraqi parliament’s oil and gas committee, Abdulhadi al-Hassani, elaborated that Iraq is capable of producing more than 700 million cubic feet of natural gas. “Iraq currently loses around $80 million per day by burning natural gas,” al-Hassani added. MH (P) / SS 1