Iraq signed on Monday with Totalenergies the agreements for a megaproject of ten billion dollars intended in particular to exploit the gas flared in the southern oil fields and to produce solar energy, to compensate for the deficiencies of a faulty electrical network.
After the tensions and long negotiations that accompanied this megaproject presented in 2021, the general director of Totalenergies Patrick Pouyanné and the Iraqi Oil Minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani signed the agreement during a ceremony organized at the Oil Ministry in Baghdad.
“Today we are committed with Total and all the partners towards a serious and fruitful cooperation, to begin the implementation of these contracts on the ground”, greeted the Iraqi minister, during a speech that preceded the signing of the four projects. “Things are in order, the partnership is consolidated: Totalenergies keeps 45% of the project, Basrah Oil Company with 30% and QatarEnergy joins us with 25%,” Patrick Pouyanné confirmed to AFP on Monday.
Solar power plant, seawater treatment plant…
“In a month the concrete steps will begin on the ground: construction of the infrastructures, our studies,” said a senior official from the Ministry of Oil, Bassem Khdeir, specifying that “in three years the projects will bear fruit.” A first project aims to recover flaring gas from three oil fields to supply gas to power plants. Another will be to develop a giant 1 GW solar plant to supply the electricity grid in the Basra region (south). One project aims to increase production from the Artawi oil field in the south of the country to 210,000 barrels per day.
And a last component refers to the construction of a seawater treatment plant to supply the necessary water for the oil fields and contribute to the supply of drinking water to Basra. This project will eventually provide five million barrels of water per day, according to figures released Monday during the ceremony in Baghdad. “Today’s agreements set the work in motion (…) on the ground we will mobilize the teams this summer,” Patrick Pouyanné told AFP.
“The first phase of the solar plant will arrive within two years, after which we will work to do a first phase on the oil side, which should increase production to 120,000 barrels/day within two years as well,” he said. adds. Totalenergies plans to finish the work in 2027-2028, he continued, specifying: “We will have delivery of both the water and the reduction in gas flaring, the oil field in production and the entire solar plant.”
Source: BFM TV
