ALBAWABA – Iraq on Monday signed an agreement with TotalEnergies for projects with $10 billion to improve the country’s power supply, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP), including facilities for capturing flared gas and harnessing solar energy.
The deal of four integrated projects was originally unveiled in 2021, but it was delayed due to disagreement over the terms of contract.
Collectively, these deals are officially dubbed the Gas Growth Integrated Project (GGIP).
It was finally signed Monday by Iraq’s Oil Minister Hayan Abdel Ghani and TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne, after lengthy negotiations, at the ministry’s headquarters in Baghdad.
"Today, we commit with Total and all partners to serious and fruitful cooperation to begin implementing these contracts in the field," said Abdel Ghani during a speech before the signing of the four projects.
"TotalEnergies will retain 45 percent of the project, Basrah Oil Company 30 percent, and QatarEnergy will join us with 25 percent," Pouyanne told AFP.
"In one month, the concrete steps will begin on the ground, including infrastructure construction," Iraqi oil ministry official Bassem Khdeir told AFP. Adding that "in three years, the projects will bear fruit".
The first part of the GGIP project aims to recover flared gas from oil fields to power electricity generation plants. Another will involve the construction of a one-gigawatt solar plant to supply electricity to the Basra regional grid.
The deal also aims at increasing oil production to 210,000 barrels per day at the Artawi oil field in the south of the country. In addition to the construction of a seawater treatment plant to provide water used in oil production, as an alternative to using fresh water from rivers and aquifers.
The project will eventually produce five million barrels of water per day, according to officials at the ceremony, AFP reported.
Pouyanne told AFP that work will start on the ground over the summer.
"The first phase of the solar plant will come in two years, and then we will work to implement a first phase on the oil field, which should increase production to 120,000 barrels per day within two years as well," he added.
Pouyanne said the Gas Growth Integrated Project is expected to be completed by 2027-2028, at a total cost of over $10 billion.
When the project was first announced by the Iraqi government in September 2021, the cost included operating costs, at a total of $27 billion.
