International Economist: Contracts to stop gas flaring may solve one of Iraq's biggest problems

[size=52]International Economist: Contracts to stop gas flaring may solve one of Iraq's biggest problems[/size]

[size=45]Translation / Hamed Ahmed[/size]
[size=45]At a time when Iraq seeks to achieve its new goal of reaching an oil production ceiling of seven million barrels per day by the year 2025, it has repeatedly stated that it will also reach a halt to its burning of associated gas by the same date.[/size]
[size=45]With all these goals put forward in the country and the accompanying doubts about their achievement, the international economic expert, Simon Watkins, says in his report that any move forward towards this goal will allow Iraq to convert this burned gas into a financial source and start developing a real commercial capacity by exporting gas to Asia as a first stage.[/size]
[size=45]The British economist, Watkins, says: This achievement will also allow Iraq to use these natural resources to operate electric power plants and reach the stage of stopping its dependence on the gas it imports from the neighboring country Iran, which is something the United States constantly insists on.[/size]
[size=45]Estimates indicate that Iraq comes second in the world after Russia in the quantities of gas that it burns annually, despite its recent accession to the initiative to finish burning it by 2030 sponsored by the United Nations with the participation of the World Bank. It is noteworthy that Iraq has burned approximately 17.37 billion cubic meters of gas last year. Last week, a long-delayed deal was approved with the American company, Baker Hughes, for oil industries, which was preceded by the signing of a four-pronged agreement with the French company, Total Energies, which finally heralds some progress in this field.[/size]
[size=45]The contract with the American company Baker Hughes, which was originally supposed to start at the end of 2018, will collect and process 200 million cubic feet per day of associated gas from the Al-Gharraf and Nasiriyah field sites, in addition to other oil fields north of Basra. This is supposed to be achieved in parallel with a planned increase in oil production rates in the Al-Gharraf field from 90,000 barrels per day to 230,000 barrels per day, according to joint sponsorship by the Japanese oil company Japex, the Malaysian Petronas Company and the Iraqi North Oil Company.[/size]
[size=45]As for the gas collection and processing deal for Baker Hughes, the first phase, according to the Ministry of Oil, will include advanced partial gas processing solutions that are prepared in the Nassiriya gas complex to dry and compress flared gas in order to generate more than 100 million cubic feet of gas per day. The second phase will include the expansion of the Nassiriya plant into an integrated liquid natural gas facility in which 200 million cubic feet of dry gas, liquefied gas and condensate will be processed. All this volume of gas production will go to the local electric power generation sector, with the Baker Hughes company stating that the treatment of gas burned in these two fields will provide an amount of 400 megawatts of energy to the Iraqi electricity grid. According to the Deputy Oil Minister, Karim Hattab, this project will take 30 months to complete.[/size]
[size=45]The fact that this is the second similar deal that Iraq has approved during the past few weeks, and despite the delay of both of them for years, is a matter of good tidings and optimism for success. The project, which will be undertaken by the French company Total, to collect and manufacture gas from five oil fields in southern Iraq, is estimated to produce 300 million cubic feet of gas per day as a first phase, provided that this rate doubles during the completion of the second phase.[/size]
[size=45]Iraq's ability to manufacture and process associated gas instead of wasting it and burning it in the atmosphere would also allow it to revive the long-stalled $11 billion Nibras Petrochemical Project. The original design plans for the Nibras project, concluded between the Dutch Shell Company, the Ministry of Oil and the Ministry of Industrialization and Minerals, were for the project to be able to produce 1.8 million metric tons per year of various petrochemical products. This may become the first large Iraqi petrochemical project since the beginning of the 1990s, and one of the country's four largest petrochemical complexes, which also includes the Khor Al-Zubair complex in the south, the Musayyib complex near Baghdad and the Baiji refinery complex north of Baghdad, which is operated by the State Company for Iraqi Petrochemical Industries.[/size]
[size=45]The British economist points out that since 2012, Iraq has focused its attention on the oil sector only, but with little incentive for the second phase to focus on the petrochemical industry, the refining sector and the production of oil derivatives, which is very vital through which additional financial resources can be gained.[/size]
[size=45]Shell has achieved a good task with the Basra Gas Company by reaching ethane gas rates of more than one billion cubic feet per day, which means that ethane gas can be extracted continuously and steadily and is a raw material available for the petrochemical industries. Several sources said this year that the Basra Gas Company plans to increase gas production capacity to 1.4 billion cubic feet per day within two years and reach production of 2 billion cubic feet after that. With persistent efforts to catch, manufacture and benefit from gas instead of burning it, and with the continued cooperation of Shell and Basra Gas, and if the completion of the Nibras Petrochemicals Project is achieved, according to what is planned for completion within five years, it is expected that this will generate financial benefits for Iraq amounting to 100 billion dollars during the initial period of dissolution of his 35-year contract.[/size]
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