Gas flaring to end in next five years, says Iraq

Iraq has confirmed it will halt all gas flaring activities in the next five years.

Investment is being made through several projects in the southern region of Basra, where production capacities have been increased, the state-run Iraqi News Agency reported, quoting the assistant director general for technical affairs for the Southern Gas Company, Majid Al-Shawaf.

Al-Shawaf said investment to modernise associated gas facilities, built in the mid-1970s, has risen in the past decade.

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He said Southern Gas has managed to increase production capacities and invest in quantities being flared in the oil fields in the southern region, such as North Rumaila, South Rumaila, West Qurna 1 and Zubair.

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Gas flaring is the burning of natural gas associated with oil extraction.

Iraq, Opec’s second-largest crude producer, flared more than 17 billion cubic metres of gas last year. Its oil output amounted to 4.3 million barrels a day in 2023.

The country faces frequent power outages but aims to achieve energy self-sufficiency by 2030. It intends to use the previously wasted resource for power generation. For now, it depends on Iran’s gas supplies.

Last month the World Bank said Iran, Iraq and Libya were among the biggest gas flaring contributors in 2023.

Along with six other nations – Russia, the US, Venezuela, Algeria, Nigeria and Mexico – they were responsible for 75 percent of global gas flaring.

Zubin Bamji, programme manager of the World Bank’s Global Flaring and Methane Reduction Partnership, said: “The global efforts to reduce gas flaring have not been sustainable – and urgent action is required.”

He urged all oil and gas producers to carefully assess their production methods and identify and seize opportunities for effective, long-term flaring reduction.

TotalEnergies of France is already developing projects in Iraq to reduce gas flaring.

In March, Iraq’s oil ministry announced a collaboration with the American oilfield services company Schlumberger and Siemens Energy of Germany to process associated gas instead of flaring.