|
 The ministry has set a deadline of April 24 for companies to submit detailed plans to help develop the Akkas gas field, located in the former Sunni insurgent stronghold of Anbar province, the ministry said on its Web site.
The Akkas field has estimated reserves of more than 2.15 trillion cubic feet.
Most of the country's vast petroleum wealth is located in the Kurdish north and the Shiite south. Development of the Akkas field could boost the economy in Sunni areas, where support for the government remains tenuous.
Early this year, the ministry said it was negotiating with Royal Dutch Shell PLC to conduct output tests for the field, which has five wells that are ready to be interconnected.
It could produce up to 50 million cubic feet a day as a first stage. That could be increased to 500 million cubic feet a day, which could be pumped through Syria to consumers in Europe.
In a separate tender, the ministry has also invited companies to submit proposals for two oil pipelines linking the Basra oil fields in southern Iraq with Iran's Abadan refinery.
The project's aim is to export crude oil and import multi-products through Shatt-al-Arab waterway, the ministry said.
Iraq has the world's third-largest oil reserves with an estimated 115 billion barrels, and it also sits on an estimated 112 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves.
[Associated Press; By SINAN SALAHEDDIN]
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed. |
