Baghdad signs contract to develop Iraq’s second largest gas field
An employee turns a valve at the Nahr Bin Omar natural gas field, north of the southern Iraqi port of Basra. Photo: AFP
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The Iraqi Ministry of Oil announced on Monday that the state-owned Midland Oil Company signed a contract with a consortium of Jereh Group, a Chinese oil field services company and manufacturer of oilfield equipment, and Petro Iraq to develop the Mansouriya gas field.
The Oil Ministry’s undersecretary for extraction affairs, Bassim Mohammed Khudair, said in a statement that the contract is part of the Oil Ministry’s efforts to utilize Iraq’s gas resources following the contract signed to develop the Akkas gas field, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.
Mohammed Yassin Al-Obaidi, the director general of the Midland Oil Company, confirmed that the production of the Mansouriya gas field in the northeastern governorate of Diyala will reach 100 million cubic feet within 18 months.
Al-Obaidi explained that the highest production will be 300 million cubic feet within four to five years.
Earlier in May, Iraq’s Ministerial Council for Energy recommended proceeding with a preliminary contract for the Mansouriya gas field development.
Iraq’s Ministerial Council for Energy has approved the allocation of $506 million for the Midland Oil Company’s 51-percent share in the project over the first three years, to be paid out as $73 million for the first year, $187 million for the second year, and $246 million for the third year, according to a statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
With estimated reserves of 4.5 trillion standard cubic feet, the Mansouriya gas field is the second largest gas field in Iraq after the Akkas gas field.
Last month, the Iraqi Oil Ministry announced that it had signed a contract with the Ukrainian company Ukrzemresurs to develop the Akkaz gas field in the western Iraqi governorate of Anbar.
The Akkas gas field, which has sizable reserves, was being developed by the Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS), a South Korean public natural gas company, before Ukrzemresurs won the contract.
Ukraine’s Ukrzemresurs will increase production at the Akkas gas field from 60 million cubic feet per day to 100 million cubic feet per day within one to two years and to 400 million cubic feet of gas in four years.
The Akkas gas field, which was found in 1992, has approximately 5.6 trillion cubic feet of confirmed natural gas deposits.