Page 12 - MEOG Week 37

MEOG PRoJeCts & ComPanies MEOG
Gazprom Neft eyes Iraqi gas project
iRaq
RUSSiA’S Gazprom Neft is eyeing a role in the development of iraq’s Mansuriyah gas field, an iraqi oil official has said. The oil arm of Moscow’s national gas giant Gazprom showed “great inter- est” in the project, Oil Minister Thamer al-Ghad- ban told reporters at the World Energy Congress in Abu Dhabi on September 11.
Mansuriyah lies in the volatile Diyala Prov- ince east of Baghdad and bordering iran. A con- sortium of Turkish Petroleum, South Korea’s KOGAS and Kuwait Energy won rights to develop the Mansuriyah site in 2011, but the project was halted in 2014 because of security risks after islamic State militants swept across large swathes of iraq.
iraqi authorities cancelled the consortium’s contract for the field last year, citing its “delay and failure” to resume work at the site. Pockets of militants still operate in the mountainous areas of Diyala and are capable of launching hit-and- run attacks against installations.
Mansuriyah holds an estimated 130bn cubic metres of gas reserves, with a projected produc- tion capacity of more than 3 bcm per year. iraq wants to use this gas as fuel at local power plants.
Gazprom Neft has been invited by the iraqi government to take part in a tender to develop the deposit, a company representative told Kom- mersant on September 12. The company plans to discuss the terms of its potential participation, after which it will decide whether to develop the project on its own or with partners.
Gazprom Neft’s main asset in iraq is the Badra oilfield, where it serves as operator with a 30% stake. it is also developing two discoveries in iraqi Kurdistan, Garmian and Shakal.
in related news, al-Ghadban said iraq had agreed to bring on board a Russian partner known as Stroytransgaz Oil to help develop another site, Block 17 in the restive Anbar Prov- ince, which was long a stronghold of so-called iS. The company is suspected to have ties with Stroytransgaz, a Russian firm subject to US sanc- tions that is owned by Kremlin ally Gennady Timchenko.
The block is thought to hold significant gas
potential and lies along the border with Saudi
Arabia, north of locations where Saudi Ara-
mco has sought to tap unconventional gas
resources.™ Image source: MEES
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 37 17•September•2019