Over the next seven years, Iraq will need Iranian natural gas supplies to feed its power-generation plants, because domestic gas output will not be enough, Iraq’s Minister of Electricity, Qasim Al-Fahdawi, has said.

“New stations are entering into service soon, hence the country’s need for gas imports,” Iraqi News quoted Al-Fahdawi as saying.

Natural gas output from Iraq’s southern fields in the Basra province will not be enough to meet the demand for powering electricity generation, according to the minister.

However, Iraq’s need for gas imports could lessen in the future, after planned fields for producing non-associated gas come on stream, such as Siba, Mansouriya, and Western Anbar, the Iraqi minister said.

Last month, Iran finally started exporting natural gas to its neighbor Iraq, after a four-year delay due to the challenging security situation in war-torn Iraq. The exports have started at a daily rate of 7 million cu m, according to a deputy oil minister who spoke to IRNA, as quoted by Reuters, but should reach 35 million cu m at an unspecified point in the future.

The gas will be supplied under two contracts—one for exports to Baghdad power plants, and the other to Basra. Iran already supplies electricity to its energy-hungry neighbor.

Iran, for its part, signed earlier this month its first Iranian Petroleum Contract (IPC) with a Western major since most sanctions on Iran were lifted. France’s energy major Total SA signed a contract to develop phase 11 of the South Pars gas field in Iran—the world’s biggest gas field. Phase 11 of the South Pars (SP11) project will have a production capacity of 2 billion cubic feet per day or 400,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day including condensate. The gas produced from the project will supply the Iranian domestic market starting in 2021, Total said on July 3.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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