BAGHDAD, April 28 (Reuters) – TotalEnergies aims to complete the first phases of a solar energy project and an associated gas project in 2025, the Iraqi prime minister’s office said in a statement on Sunday, citing the French oil company’s chief executive, Patrick Pouyanne.
The first phase of the gas project in southern Iraq would initially produce 50 million cubic feet per day (mcf/d) over the next year, according to the prime minister’s office.
Iraq wants to produce much-needed natural gas for power plants and reduce imports.
The OPEC producer currently relies heavily on Iranian gas imports to power its electricity grid.
Iraq and TotalEnergies signed a $27 billion energy deal last year aimed at increasing pumping and boosting the country’s energy production capacity with four oil, gas and renewable energy projects.
In addition to increasing production from the southern Ratawi oil field, the deal includes a 1 GW solar power plant, a 600 mcf/d gas processing facility and a seawater supply project, key to boosting oil production. oil in southern Iraq.
The country burns much of its own gas, extracted along with crude oil in its fields, because it lacks facilities to transform it into fuel and instead relies on Iranian energy imports to generate electricity.
(Reporting by Hatem Maher and Ahmed Rasheed, writing by Muhammad Al Gebaly. Editing in Spanish by Javier Leira)
