Iraq and the United States signed on Monday memoranda of understanding (MOUs) to capture flared gas and transform it into electricity, in an attempt to solve the chronic shortage crisis, despite Baghdad’s rich fossil fuel resources.
Iraq aims to achieve self-sufficiency in gas production during the next five years, according to statements by Oil Minister Hayan Abdul Ghani, last month.
The country has gas reserves estimated at 131 trillion cubic feet, ranking 11th in the world according to the US Energy Agency. However, weak infrastructure has reduced daily production capacity by half, recording about 1.5 billion cubic feet of associated gas.
The remaining half is left to burn in the air, causing a loss of millions of dollars and increasing global warming emissions, in a country threatened by a real crisis due to climate change, according to the United Nations.
The largest gas production projects are led by the Basra Gas Company, which is a joint venture between the Iraqi government, which owns 51 percent, Shell (44 percent) and Mitsubishi of Japan (5 percent). In addition to this huge project, the remaining production is carried out through some small stations in the south of the country.
“To allow Iraq to benefit from the US private sector’s leading technology and expertise, the United States and Iraq announced the signing of new memoranda of understanding (MOUs) to capture and process flared gas and turn it into usable electricity for the Iraqi people,” read a joint statement following the US-Iraq Higher Coordination Committee (HCC) meeting.
The press release did not mention a time period for the MOUs.
Iraq needs 40,000 megawatts of electrical energy to meet its needs. It currently produces 27,000 megawatts through stations that operate mostly on gas. But the production capacity sometimes drops to 17,000 megawatts.
Iraq has turned to Iran to fill the remaining gap. It has been importing about 50 million cubic meters since 2017.
However, reliance on unstable Iranian gas, in addition to geopolitical complications, such as US sanctions on Tehran, and internal security such as “sabotage operations” and attacks on the electricity network, cause repeated power outages in the country, which in 2021 led to violent protests.
