UAE’s Crescent Petroleum to develop 3 oil and gas fields in Iraq
A gas processing facility at Rumaila oilfield in Basra, Iraq. Photo: Reuters
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The Iraqi Oil Ministry announced on Sunday that it had launched three energy contracts with the UAE’s Crescent Petroleum to develop three oil and gas fields in Iraq.
Crescent Petroleum, located in the United Arab Emirates, secured three 20-year contracts in February to develop oil and gas reserves in the Iraqi governorates of Basra and Diyala, northeast of Baghdad, according to Reuters.
The Iraqi Minister of Oil, Hayan Abdul-Ghani, mentioned in a statement that the contracts concluded with Crescent Petroleum are expected to help the country produce 400 million standard cubic feet per day of natural gas within 18 months.
Abdul-Ghani explained that the step will allow Iraq to reduce gas flaring and utilize the processed gas to generate electricity.
The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Oil for Gas Affairs, Izzat Saber, said during a meeting last week that the Oil Ministry is eager to carry out strategic projects to extract natural gas within specified timing and to accelerate new projects at sites including hydrocarbon gases, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.
Power plants in Iraq depend on gas imports from Iran, which cover one-third of the country’s energy needs.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan said last week that the country will sell 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually to Iraq through a swap arrangement with Iran.
The Iraqi Minister of Electricity, Ziyad Ali Fadel, said that Iraq will receive gas from Turkmenistan through the pipeline network in Iran linked to Iraq to finally reach power plants in Iraq.
According to the initial agreement with Turkmenistan, Iraq will import about 25 million cubic meters of gas per day, an Iraqi official in the Ministry of Electricity told AFP.