Iraq to announce 3rd round of gas licenses on Thursday

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Oil Ministry will invite global companies on Thursday to invest in the Iraqi gas fields, according to a spokesman of the ministry. “Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahrestani will announce on Thursday (May 6) a third licensing auction to develop gas fields throughout Iraq,” Essam Jihad told IraqiNews.com news agency. “The ministry has a plan to develop the gas industry within its efforts to turn Iraq into one of the region’s gas producers and exporters,” he added. Iraq is offering 20-year technical-services contracts to develop Akkas in the western Anbar province, Mansouriya in the eastern Diala province and the Siba gas field in southern Basra province near the border with Iran, ministry officials said last month. During the first and second bidding rounds held last year, Baghdad awarded 10 oil deals to international companies with the aim of boosting crude production to 12 million barrels a day in six to seven years. Iraq is currently producing 2.4 million barrels a day. Both the 4 trillion-cubic-feet Akkas and the 3.3 trillion-cubic-feet Mansouriya fields were included in the first bidding round last June but weren’t awarded. The Siba gas field, with estimated proven reserves of more than 3 billion cubic meters, was dropped from the list of oil and gas fields listed in the second bid round which took place last December. SH (S) 2