Iraq committed to supplying surplus gas to Europe: Shahristani

Iraq is committed to exporting natural gas surplus to its domestic requirements to Europe but not necessarily through the proposed Nabucco gas pipeline, Deputy Prime Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said Wednesday.

“Iraq is committed to export surplus gas that is not going to be needed in the immediate future,” Shahristani said at the International Oil Summit conference in Paris.

“We will be needing a lot of gas but in the medium term, Iraq will have surplus gas to export. We have an agreement with the EU where Iraq is going to supply the EU with some gas, not necessarily from Nabucco. Iraq is not committed to that project,” he added without providing any volumes.

He said Iraq was also looking at potential LNG supplies to Asia.

Iraq currently flares nearly all the gas it produces because it lacks the infrastructure to gather and utilize associated gas.

The oil ministry last year awarded three long-term service contracts to develop three non-associated gas fields, including Akkas, which has been earmarked as a potential source of gas supply to Europe.

A fourth bidding round launched on March 22 offered 12 exploration blocks with a focus on boosting both oil and gas reserves, aimed at finding and developing additional gas fields to meet anticipated higher demand for power generation.

Iraqi Oil Minister Abdul Karim Luaibi said at the time that the blocks were likely to add 10 billion barrels of oil reserves to the already revised 143.1 billion barrels of proven reserves and 29 Tcf to the country’s 126.7 Tcf of gas reserves.

Iraq’s gas production is set to rise to 4.5 Bcf/d in 2014 from 1.775 Bcf/d this year.

Shahristani said the revised reserve figures did not include reserves in the semi-autonomous Kurdish province because these had not been confirmed.

“Unless the ministry of oil checks those figures and sends them to an international consultant to confirm and check with foreign oil companies operating there, we will not declare them,” Shahristani said.

“The 143 billion [barrels] have gone through all those stages and steps, which is why they have been declared,” said Shahristani, referring to the revised reserve figure announced by Iraq’s oil ministry late last year, when proven reserves were raised from 115 billion barrels.

Kurdish reserves are estimated at 30 billion barrels but these have not been confirmed independently, he explained.

If these reserves are added to the Iraqi upwardly revised figures–which were raised from an earlier estimate of 115 billion barrels late last year–Iraq’s total reserves would go up to 175 billion barrels, he said.