The Basra Gas Company project is a great milestone to Iraq’s gas industry and a remarkable achievement for the country in its endeavor to monetize its natural resources. The utilization of associated gas is a huge challenge to the oil industry and many oil-producing countries worldwide. Russia, a leading world gas producer and exporter, flares 3500 million cubic feet of associated gas daily, about five times the amounts Iraq is…
Tag: Shell
Iraq Finally on World Gas Map
The Iraqi council of ministers has finally given its final stamp of approval today for the first gas deal of its kind in Iraq’s energy history based on the agreement initialized on July 12 between Royal Dutch Shell, Mitsubishi and South Gas Co, to capture and process flared gas in southern Iraq. This deal would put Iraq on the global gas map, something long due in view of the country’s…
Exxon’s Leap into Kurdistan
It was only a question of time before it became public. ExxonMobil’s move into Kurdistan region of Iraq was surrounded with lots of hush hush from the time it signed in October, until the moment the ministry of natural resources (MNR) in the KRG decided to score a fantastic public relations coup. Now that it is public, where does this leave the regional and the federal governments and what fate…
Laith Al-Shaher
Laith Al-Shaher is the Director General of the legal department at the Iraqi oil ministry and one of the main negotiators of the South Gas Project with Royal/Dutch Shell and Mitsubishi. In a first for an oil ministry official, he spells out the main features of the deal in an interview with IOF editor Ruba Husari in Baghdad, as well as the nature of Basrah Gas Co, the first gas joint venture…