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Iraqi planning to exploit the gas wealth
05 March 2008 (Iraq Business Journal)
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Iraqi Oil Minister, Hussein Al-Shahrastani, said that the Commissioner of Energy in the European Union, Andrias Bebalgus, assured him in their meeting in Brussels recently that the Union wishes Iraq to play a full role in building the Arab gas pipeline, which goes to Europe, via a linking it to Nabucco pipeline, which will transfer gas through Turkey to Western Europe from the Caspian Sea starting in 2011.
He said during a press conference that the company "Royal Dutch Shell" made a presentation to develop natural gas resources in Iraq, saying that Baghdad had given priority to the development of gas in the south, mainly due to the high demand for gas in the world, and that the region could provide Europe with large amounts of it, .

Sources revealed that Iraq is losing about $7 billion annually due to the burning of natural gas since 1927 when oil was discovered in Iraq for the first time. Iraq has about 6.3 trillion cubic meters of certain natural gas, making about %2 of the world reserves and %6 of the Arabian Gulf reserve; the proportion of gas associated to oil is %70 while free gas forms %30.

As Iraq is not a producer and exporter of gas now, the age of its reserve is estimated by 750 years while Saudi reserve is sufficient for 110 years, the Iranian for 350 years, Qatar reserve for 380 years and the Bahrain for 12 years, according to confirmed studies in this regard.

Abduljabar Abboud Al-Halfi, the expert at the University of Basrah, said in a study that the global demand for gas is increasing from 195 billion cubic meters per day in 1995 to 2400 billion cubic meters in 2007, and is expected to reach 3100 billion in 2010. The study pointed out that the producing countries are racing to extend pipelines transporting gas across regions and nations for long-term contracts for the sale of gas, as is now happening in Qatar and other Asian countries and between Iran, China, India and Pakistan, between Algeria and Europe, between Norway and France, the Russia - Europe gas line, as well as the transfer of gas by medium and large tankers.