Iraq announces that it is close to producing 5 million barrels per day, 7 APRIL

  Iraq announces that it is close to producing 5 million barrels per day

Baghdad - Iraq Today:

Oil Minister Hayyan Abdul Ghani confirmed that Iraq is close to reaching an extraction capacity of up to 5 million barrels of oil per day, while revealing the current volume of gas production, indicating that Iraq is ranked 12th globally in the volume of storage.

Abdul Ghani said in a press interview that "the Iraqi oil industry plays an important role in shaping the future of the national economy, and plays a great responsibility in supplementing the economy and advancing its burdens, especially with its reliance mainly on oil amid serious and real attempts to diversify the national economy and its sources of income."

He added that "the Ministry of Oil is approaching coherent steps to reach in the extraction sector an extraction capacity estimated at 5 million barrels per day despite serious restrictions on oil markets and restricting the quotas of OPEC countries in order to support the stability and balance of prices."

"This comes amid real fears of upcoming climate restrictions on the oil sector, the latest of which was the texts of the COP 28 climate conference and its recommendations for a gradual shift away from fossil fuels," he said.

He stressed that "the ministry's efforts are concerted in the gas industry on the axis of new rounds of exploration, production rounds, associated and burned gas investment rounds, and work is continuing on the fifth and sixth rounds of border patches and patches of the promising western regions with gas reserves because of Iraq's position in the global treasury that makes it ranked 12th in the world, and because of the importance of gas in meeting our national need and in the energy transition file as it is the cleanest fuel compared to heavy fuel, and this is in line with the recommendations of recent climate conferences. "

He pointed out that "the Ministry of Oil has paid great attention to investing gas in the western regions, which have a very large gas reserve, and therefore the ministry launched the fifth and sixth licensing rounds to invest it with the border areas, and the two rounds included more than 30 fields and oil and gas exploration patches, including 15 gas patches in the western regions, starting from the border with Syria and then Jordan down to the border with Saudi Arabia, where the provinces of Diwaniyah and Muthanna."

Abdul Ghani pointed out that "there are 20 international companies that will contribute and we hope that Iraqi businessmen will also have a contribution to these licensing rounds, and we are fully prepared to qualify these companies in order to expand participation in the rounds, which will ensure Iraq's self-sufficiency in gas and stop importing it, and Iraq may turn into a gas exporting country."

The Minister of Oil pointed out that "Iraq's current production of gas reaches 3200 million standard cubic feet (mqmq) per day, and the estimated investor of it up to 62% and the rest of the percentage of 38% is currently burned, and the current government since the beginning of its formation has set the goal of stopping gas burning at the top of its priorities."

He explained, "It has been contracted to stop burning gas and its investment, and within a few years the entire quantity will be completed and stop burning and we have developed a road map to invest its large quantities, and perhaps the last project completed last year is the project (Basra Angie Al) with a capacity of 200 million standard cubic feet of gas and was opened with the beginning of the formation of the government, and there is another unit in the Basra Gas Company with the same volume of energy with 200 million standard cubic feet and will start its trial operation in the second half of This year 2024".

He continued, "We also have a gas investment project in the Halfaya field in Maysan with a capacity of 300 million standard cubic feet, which has reached advanced stages, and within one to two months, the trial operation of the project will be completed and this quantity will be invested and directed to the national grid and power stations, especially the Amara gas station, as well as we have a project in Dhi Qar Governorate with a capacity of 200 million standard cubic feet implemented by Baker Hughes International for gas investment in the Nasiriyah and Al-Gharraf fields, which has also reached advanced stages. The first phase will be operational during the second half of this year, while the second phase will be operational next year."

Abdul Ghani pointed out that "the ministry's contracts and efforts are continuing in the project of the French company Total, which includes 3 main events in addition to oil production, and the most important of its activities is the investment of 600 million standard cubic feet of gas that is currently burned in 5 oil fields: Majnoon, Al-Lahis, West Qurna 2, Artawi and Al-Tuba, and it will be implemented in two phases by 300 million standard cubic feet for each stage, and they will end over 5 years, the first 3 and the second two years."