Regional administration in north of Iraq hurries to reach international gas markets

Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov. 16 /Trend, A.Badalova/

The regional administration in the north of Iraq is in hurry to transport gas to the international markets and may not wait till Nabucco project to be realized, UAE's newspaper The National reported referring to the minister for Energy Resources of the regional administration in the north of Iraq Ashti Hawrami.

"If a [Nabucco] pipeline capability does not materialise in time ... then we will go for the LNG plant in Ceyhan [Turkey]," Hawrami said.

He mentioned that the gas in the regional administration in the north of Iraq may be transported to the international markets by sea, rather than via land pipeline.

"We are in a hurry. We have the gas, we need to monetize the value of this gas, and we cannot wait for investors to come up with a plan," Hawrami said.

The gas from the regional administration in the north of Iraq is considered as one of the sources for Nabucco pipeline, which is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region and Middle East to Europe.

According to BP, Iraq's proven gas reserves amounted to 3.17 trillion cubic meters in Iraq in early 2011.

Nabucco project, worth 7.9 billion euro, is planned to start construction in 2013 and the first supplies will be commissioned in 2017.

The total length of the pipeline is 3,900 kilometres with a maximum capacity of 31 billion cubic metres per year. The project's partners include the Austrian OMV, Hungarian MOL, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas and the German RWE.

Currently Nabucco considered the gas produced during the second stage of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field development as the main source for the project.