Iraq launches project to reduce flaring at oilfields

Iraq has launched a new project that aims to recover gas normally set alight during oil extraction at two oilfields in the country’s south.

Flaring, or burning off excess gas during oil extraction, is a highly polluting practice but far less costly than processing it for sale.

According to the World Bank, Iraq is the second-biggest user of flaring worldwide after Russia.

The new project, signed in 2017 with oil services company Baker Hughes, will eventually allow 200 million cubic feet (around 5.6 million cubic metres) of gas a day that is usually torched on the Nasiriyah and Gharraf oilfields to be captured, according to a statement from the oil ministry sent to the media on Sunday.

It seeks to “exploit the gas that escapes from all oilfields across all Iraq, consolidate national gas production” and help preserve the environment, Oil Minister Ihsan Ismail was quoted as saying in the statement.

A ministry official told AFP that the implementation of the project and exploitation of the gas would have to wait 30 months for the completion of infrastructure works.