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Baker Hughes to build Iraqi gas

processing plant

IRAQ US firm Baker Hughes has landed a contract to Gharraf. The plan was to use modular skid-
build a new 200mn cubic feet per day (2.07bn mounted gas processing technology for a fully
Iraq is the world’s cubic metres per year) gas processing plant in integrated NGL plant at Nasiriya that would
second-worst flarer after Iraq’s Dhi Qar Province. recover 200 mmcf per day of dry gas, as well as
Russia. The contract was awarded by South Gas Co. LPG and condensate. This previous iteration of
(SGC), owned by the Iraqi oil ministry. Baker the project was scheduled to be completed by the
Hughes’ Turbomachinery & Process Solutions end of 2021.
(TPS) team will design, manufacture, deliver, Iraq is the second-worst gas flarer globally
construct and commission the plant’s equip- after Russia, burning some 18 bcm of gas in 2019,
ment. It will also supply compression equip- according to the World Bank. Using only 40% of
ment, digital monitoring systems and provide this gas, Iraq could generate an extra 3.5 GW of
other services. power, General Electric has estimated.
Once completed, the plant will process gas Iraq has some 18 GW of generation capac-
that was previously flared at Iraq’s Nassiriya ity but its needs exceeded 30 GW in 2020. It
and Gharraf oilfields. It will lead to a cut in CO2 relies heavily on imports from Iran, for which it
emissions of over 6mn tonnes per year (tpy), the must regularly obtain waivers on US sanctions
service provider said. No further details of the to receive. The government has a plan to add 11
project were disclosed. GW of generation capacity over the next four
The latest award follows a contract Baker years, but the coronavirus (COVID-19) pan-
Hughes secured from SGC in 2018 to develop demic and the resulting economic collapse has
solutions for flare-gas recovery at Nassiriya and stalled plans. ™

LNG

Egypt poised to ramp up LNG exports

in coming weeks: oil minister

EGYPT EGYPT is preparing to expand its LNG pandemic. Its next shipment was not until July,
exports in recent weeks, to exploit a recent followed by another three-month hiatus until
Cargoes have been rebound in prices and its increasingly abun- October.
booked for Idku until dant supply, its oil minister, Tarek el-Molla, According to Vortexa data, the Idku plant
the end of March, and said on January 27. only dispatched 19 cargoes in 2020, versus 54 a
Damietta will restart by Cargoes have been booked for delivery from year earlier.
the end of February. the Idku export terminal until the end of March, The 5mn tpy Damietta facility has been idle
while the Damietta terminal is due to restart by since 2012, when it was closed down because
the end of February, el-Molla explained. Egypt lacked the gas supply to keep it running.
“In 2020, the prices were very stressed, very The situation is now very different, following a
low, and we were not able to export, except a few surge in Egyptian offshore gas production over
cargoes throughout the year,” the ministry said. the last few years.
“Starting from October 2020 until now, we have Italy’s Eni reached deals with Spain’s Naturgy
already booked all our volumes to be exported and its Egyptian partners in December that have
from the Idku plant. We have already [booked] paved the way for the plant’s restart by settling
cargoes to the end of March.” a long-running legal dispute over its earlier clo-
The 7.2mn tonne per year (tpy) Royal Dutch sure. Under those agreements, Naturgy left the
Shell-operated Idku plant halted exports in late project and its share was divided up between
March, in response to the collapse in global LNG Eni, Egyptian Natural Gas Holding and Egyptian
prices triggered by the coronavirus (COVID-19) General Petroleum Corp. ™

Week 04 28•January•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P9