Ukrainian company to develop Akkas gas field instead of KOGAS
Workers at the Akkas gas field. Photo: Iraq Oil Report
Baghdad (IraqiNess.com) – A senior official in the Iraqi Ministry of Oil said that Baghdad will soon terminate the contract with Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) to develop the Akkas gas field and will enter into a contract with a Ukrainian company.
The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Oil for Extraction Affairs, Bassem Khudair, said that the ministry will announce in the coming days a new contract with a Ukrainian company to develop the gas field located west of Ramadi.
Khudair noted that the step aims to develop the gas field to reach a production capacity of 400 million cubic feet per day.
Khudair elaborated that a contract was signed in 2011 with the South Korean public natural gas company to develop the gas field, but production was hindered for more than a decade.
The Iraqi official clarified that Iraq will be able to extract natural gas from the second largest gas field in Iraq after the Siba conventional gas field south of Basra, according to Al-Sabah newspaper.
Khudair indicated that the Iraqi cabinet decided last March to repudiate the contract with KOGAS, the operator of the Akkas gas field, to be able to accelerate the completion of the strategic investment project for Iraq.
The Akkas gas field in Iraq was discovered in 1992 and began production a year later. It has 5.6 trillion cubic feet of proven reserves, according to Business Korea.
The Iraqi Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, confirmed on Friday that the government plans to turn Iraq into a gas-exporting country.
Al-Sudani’s remarks took place during his participation in the Middle East Global Summit organized by Al-Monitor and Semafor in New York, according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
The Prime Minister also explained that the Iraqi government completed important projects in the gas sector, which will enable Baghdad to export gas in the future.