Russia aids Kurdistan gas boost

Strategic investments from Rosneft have unclogged Kurdistan's messy export scene, paving the way for supplies to Turkey in the early 2020s

Natural gas prospects for the Kurdistan Region of Iraq look better than they have for several years. Production is up, a new gas pipeline to Turkey is planned and the region's energy ministry claims it will start gas exports in 2020. The latter is the latest bold promise typical of KRI oil minister Ashti Hawrami, who has admittedly done a reasonable job of licking the KRI's independent oil sector into shape. But it is probably unrealistic, given it does not accord with development plans from the region's gas companies. Their main focus is connecting the KRI's main power plants to gas in a process expected to take the next three years to complete. But the KRI now looks set to become self-suff