ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Baghdad highlighted its clean energy drive and efforts to clean up its oil sector at an energy forum that brought international industry leaders to the Iraqi capital on Saturday.
"We are ending gas flaring, with 1.3 billion standard cubic feet produced alongside crude," Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani said at the Baghdad International Energy Forum, according to a statement from his media office. "Over 70 percent of associated gas is being reused, with complete elimination of flaring targeted within two years."
"For the first time, clean and renewable energy projects are being implemented, including solar plants and waste-to-energy projects,” he added.
Under the Paris Agreement, Iraq has committed to eliminate spontaneous gas flaring by the end of the decade. Sudani has said that Baghdad will stop flaring associated gas by the end of 2028 and use it for electricity production.
Iraq is one of the worst offenders for the deadly and toxic practice of gas flaring, coming third behind Russia and Iran, according to the World Bank.
Flaring is when oil wells burn the excess gas that cannot be stored or used. It is a convenient way to deal with associated petroleum gas - a waste product. However, it damages the environment, is a danger to public health, and contributes to global warming.
Expanding export routes
At the energy forum, Sudani also touched on plans to diversify oil exports.
“By 2030, at least 40 percent of oil exports will shift to high-value refined products instead of crude," Sudani said, adding "projects are already underway on this basis.”
Sudani said they are engaged in talks with Syria's new authorities to "reactivate the Iraq-Syria export pipeline as an option for diversification."
The Iraqi prime minister, however, noted that as an important OPEC member, Baghdad's current export quota does not reflect its reserves, production capacity and population size. Iraq possesses proven oil reserves of about 150 billion barrels, ranking it among the world’s highest.
Sudani said that Iraqi oil "will continue to supply global markets for more than 120 years.”
Oil Minister Hayyan Abdul Ghani also said that Baghdad is keen to diversify its exports.
"Iraq is working on diversifying oil export lines to ensure safe and stable flow to world markets, and is studying new export options through Syria and Lebanon and exploring other possibilities in addition to implementing projects in export capacity," he said, noting that their “goal is to reach energy source diversification to be 30 percent diversified by 2040."
Erbil-Baghdad oil export dispute
Baghdad will reach an agreement with international oil companies and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in the coming days to resume Kurdish oil exports, the Iraqi Oil Ministry's undersecretary for extraction affairs Basim Mohammed Khudair told reporters on the sidelines of the forum.
“We, God willing, in the coming days will reach an agreement with the companies and the Region. This dialogue is being managed by the Region - actually with the companies, since the contracts are signed between the Region as the first party and the companies,” he said.
Exports of Kurdish oil through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline have been suspended since March 2023, after a Paris-based arbitration court ruled that Turkey violated a 1973 pipeline agreement by allowing the KRG to independently export oil since 2014.
Control over oil resources has long been a source of tension between Erbil and Baghdad.
Iraqi officials have made similar optimistic remarks about resuming the exports in the past, but they have yet to reach a final deal.
The Association of the Petroleum Industry of Kurdistan (APIKUR), an umbrella group of eight international oil firms operating in the Kurdistan Region, has said that it will not resume exports unless Baghdad provides written guarantees of the payment of “oil delivered but not paid between October 2022 and March 2023.”
Khudair said on Saturday that the oil companies "have many demands," but did not go into detail.
The Iraqi parliament in early February approved amendments to the federal budget law, authorizing a $16 per barrel production and transport fee for Erbil and international oil companies. This move was seen as crucial to restarting Kurdish oil exports.
Iraq's Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein told Rudaw on Saturday that there is a disagreement between all three sides - the international companies, the KRG, and the federal government.
He was, however, optimistic and echoed the sentiment that a final agreement will be reached "in the coming days."
