Iraq to hold bidding round for oil and gas exploration next week
The Majnoon oil field in southern Iraq. Photo: AFP
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The Iraqi Ministry of Oil said on Thursday that Iraq will start inviting foreign companies on April 27 to bid for contracts to explore oil and gas fields.
The spokesperson for the Oil Ministry, Asem Jihad, mentioned in a statement that Iraq will put 30 new oil and gas projects up for auction in two licensing rounds, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.
The step reflects the government’s efforts to reduce imports that are straining the national budget and produce the natural gas needed to operate power plants.
Jihad illustrated that the ‘fifth plus’ round comprises 16 projects, some of which were not granted in the fifth licensing round, while the sixth round will mostly offer exploratory gas blocks.
The governorates of Nineveh, Anbar, Karbala, Najaf, Babylon, Qadisiyah, Muthanna, Basra, Thi Qar, Maysan, Wasit, Diyala, and the capital Baghdad are all included in the projects, according to Jihad.
Due to the lack of the required infrastructure to turn gas into fuel, the country burns a large portion of the gas that is taken from its fields with crude oil. Instead, Iraq imports gas from Iran to be used as fuel for its power plants to generate electricity.