Iraq to finish two LNG terminals by June, says oil minister

BAGHDAD — Iraq plans to wrap up construction on two liquefied natural gas terminals by June to shore up the country’s electricity supply, Oil Minister Hayan Abdul Ghani said Sunday in a televised interview.

“We’ve invited bids for a fixed gas platform in Al-Faw that will let us import large volumes of LNG—and potentially export gas once we become self-sufficient,” Abdul Ghani told state-run Iraqiya TV. “We’re also building a floating platform in Khor Al-Zubair, connecting it to our national pipeline at a pace even major global companies would find tough to match.”

Abdul Ghani added that Iraq is negotiating with several international firms to equip and install two floating terminals in Khor Al-Zubair and aims to complete that project by June.

For years, Iraq has struggled with ongoing gas shortages. Baghdad heavily relies on Iranian imports. Until now, the country also lacked infrastructure to receive and regasify LNG, limiting its ability to tap alternative suppliers.

In late November, Iran suspended gas exports to Iraq for an initial 15 days, and the stoppage has been extended without explanation, costing Baghdad an estimated 8,000 to 8,600 megawatts in lost generation capacity. This month, the United States declined to renew a sanctions waiver that let Iraq buy electricity from Iran.

Some excerpt of Abdul Ghani’s interview with the official Iraqi television, Iraqiya TV:

We have launched a tender for the construction of a fixed gas platform in Al-Faw, which will enable us to import large quantities, in addition to the possibility of exporting once we reach the stage of self-sufficiency, along with work on a floating platform (in Khor Al-Zubair), and work is currently underway to connect it to the national pipeline at a rapid pace that even the major global companies are unable to achieve.

We are negotiating with a number of international companies to equip and install the two floating platforms in Khor Al-Zubair to convert gas from the liquid state to the gaseous state and push it through the pipelines, due to our significant need for electricity generation with the arrival of summer, regardless of the issue of Iranian gas and the possibility of its interruption. We plan to complete this project during the upcoming month of June.

And for years… Iraq has suffered from the impossibility of importing gas from many countries other than Iran due to the country’s lack of platforms to handle liquefied gas and convert it into a gaseous state, but the completion of the two platforms will mean opening Iraq’s options to Qatari, Algerian, Omani gas, and others. The project also requires a 40 km pipeline to connect it to the national platform.