Iraq’s Oil Ministry has signed a contract with US energy services firm Baker Hughes to reduce flare gas emissions and generate up to 200 million cubic feet a day of gas (cf/d). 

As per the contract, Baker Hughes, which recently merged with US multinational General Electric (GE), will develop advanced solutions to reduce gas flared at the Nassiriya and Al Gharraf oil fields.

The project to reduce gas flaring in southern Iraqi fields will be undertaken in two stages. In the first stage, around 100 million cf/d of gas will be generated after dehydrating and compressing flare gas using Baker Hughes’ advanced modular gas processing solution.

The Nassiriya plant will then be expanded to be a complete natural gas liquid facility to recover 200 million cf/d of dry gas, liquefied petroleum gas as well as condensate.

The dry gas generated will enable the production of electricity from cleaner duel.

Iraq has one of the highest gas flaring rates in the world. It is estimated that gas flared in Iraq is the equivalent of 300,000 barrels a day of oil. According to Iraqi economist Barik Schuber, the reduction of gas flaring is a top priority for the current oil minister Jabbar al-Luaibi. The ministry plans to build three gas processing plants to process natural gas being flared across Iraqi gas fields.

Apart from environmental concerns, flaring gas causes inefficiency in energy and power generation. Iraq produced only around a billion cubic metres of gas in 2016 – the lowest in the region – despite possessing large natural gas reserves. It still depends on pipeline imports to keep its power stations running. Chronic power cuts are a major problem in Iraq, particularly during the summer and have led to widespread protests against the government.

Iran recently began supplying seven million cubic metres a day of gas to help run Iraqi power stations.