Barsah Gas Company to start operations, Shell says

Shell and Mitsubishi, two south gas companies, have announced the resume in operations in Basrah Gas Company, which will be one of the largest gas producers in the history of Iraq. This will be world’s largest flare reduction process, as reveal by global energy major Royal Dutch Shell.
Basrah Gas Company is a 25-year incorporated joint venture between Iraq’s South Gas Company holding 51 per cent of its shares, Shell 44 per cent and Mitsubishi Corporation 5 per cent. From three major oil fields, namely - Rumaila, West Qurna 1 and Zubair – the gas company capture its associated gas.
Iraq has estimated natural gas reserves totaling 112.6 trillion cubic feet, the 10th largest in the world. However, the gas production infrastructure could not find a scope of growth due to war situations in the country and lack of internal security. It is estimated that with the present infrastructure and due to flaring technique Iraq loses billion dollars annually.
Under the agreement signed with the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, BGC will sell processed gas to state-owned South Gas Company. A statement added by Shell, saying - “BGC will be dedicated to the rehabilitation and upgrade of the current facilities to put them back to work safely as well as building new assets which is expected to increase the production capacity from a current 400 million cubic feet per day to 2 billion cubic feet per day.”
Presently, 3.1 billion barrels per day is the total oil production in Iraq, which is expected to rise at 3.4 million bpd by next year. According to the latest oil industry estimates, Iraq’s proven reserves are in the order of 143 billion barrels, the third largest in the world. Proven reserves are found in 79 fields (70 oil and 9 gas), of which only 23 are producing. The current gas reserves in Iraq is around 128 trillion cubic feet (tcf), with portable gas reserve is around 325 tcf.