This time for Iraqi gas?
The new Baghdad government hopes to succeed where predecessors have failed in developing supply
New Iraqi oil minister Hayan Abdulghani took office in October pledging to accelerate gas development. Successive oil chiefs have been making the same promise for well over a decade, yet only a single significant non-associated field is onstream while the volume of associated gas productively harnessed remains less than that squandered in environmentally damaging flaring. Instead, Iraq remains dependent on imports from Iran, with all the fiscal and political issues that brings. There are, though, reasons to hope that Abdulghani might fare better than his predecessors, not least of these is awareness of the need to seize the opportunity created by conducive international market conditions. Us
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