Iran, Iraq Ink New Energy MoU

Iranian Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad, in a meeting with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hayan Abdul-Ghani Al-Sawad, announced singing of a new MoU based on which Iraq will provide Iran’s LNG units with required feeds. 

Paknejad said that in Western Iran, NGL facilities—which use associated gas from crude oil as feedstock—face shortages, adding “Iraq burns some of this associated gas from fields near the Iranian border after extraction. As a result, the two countries signed an agreement to transfer this gas into Iran as feedstock for NGL units, with private sector investment.”

The Iranian oil minister said in early March that the country’s natural gas production is expected to reach to 1.34 billion cubic meters per day at the end of the Seventh Development Plan. 

 “According to the quantitative goals set in the Seventh Development Plan, the country’s crude gas production is expected to reach 1.34 billion cubic meters per day by the end of the plan,” Mohsen Paknejad said. 

Achieving this target requires the development of gas fields and the implementation of production maintenance projects to prevent output decline.

The minister explained that expert estimates indicate that development and production maintenance projects will require approximately $75 billion in investment.

He went on to say that $53 billion of the abovementioned fund will be allocated to developing new gas fields, while $22 billion will be dedicated to production maintenance projects, including the South Pars pressure enhancement plan.

Paknejad stressed that reaching the daily production target of 1.34 billion cubic meters of gas over the next four years will require an average annual investment of $19 billion.

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