DUBAI, Two UAE-based energy companies yesterday said they had begun producing natural gas in Iraq’s self-ruled Kurdish area.
Crescent Petroleum and Dana Gas say initial primary phase gas production is at 75 million cubic feet a day (CFD) and will rise to 300 million cfd within the first half of 2009.
The gas will be supplied to new power plants under construction near Erbil and Sulaimaniya, which will eventually provide 1,250 MW of urgently needed electricity for over 4 million Iraqi citizens. This will provide Iraq with savings of approximately $2.5 billion a year in liquid fuel import costs.
As part of the project implementation, the primary phase completed in a record time of 15 months, the companies have installed a 180 km gas pipeline across rough mountainous terrain that sometimes required the clearing of minefields. Also, upstream activities on seismic surveys and production wells were carried out, and brand new gas processing facilities were installed.
