Southern Gas Company holds conference on contract with Shell

BASRA / IraqiNews.com: Iraq’s state-owned Southern Gas Company has held a news conference on Sunday, in which it described details of the contract signed with Shell and Mitsubishi Companies, attended by government officials, Civil Society organizations and businessmen. “Southern Iraq’s Basra Company, shall comprise the Southern Gas Company and both Shell and Mitusbishi,” the Director of the Southern Gas Company, Ali Hussein Khudhier, told the news conference, adding that “the Southern Gas Company possesses 51% of the the new Company, whilst Shell Would possess 44% and Mitsubishi – 5%, pointing out that the installations of the old Southern Gas Company have had a capital belonging to the Iraqi side, reaching 1.5 billion (b) US dollars. Khudhier said that “the Southern Gas Company shall obtain 51% of the crude gas, plus 35% as tax, whilst the share of the Southern Gas Company would rach 90% at the end, with th other companies – 10%. The Iraqi Official estimated the size of the Iraqi gas reserve to excheed 12 trillion (t) cubic feet, that could reach 150 trillion (t) cubic feet in the long run. He said that 70% of the gas produced is the size of the oil-accompanying gas, 20% – non-accompanying, 10% – the socalled Qubba gas, 60% Dry Gas, 50 percent of which would be used to produce electricity, 15% for industrial plants and 15% for oil installations. “About 59% of the gas reserve is in Basra Province and 12% is in Missan Province, meaning that Basra and Missan form 71.2% of Iraq’s oil resrve,” Khudhier said, adding that the gas “is invested by the Basra Gas Company and other National Companies, whilst the first licenses were given for Basra’s Rumeila, Zubair and West-Qurna fields, stemming from fact that the Basra Gas Company‘s contract is scheduled to continue for 25 years.” SKH (TS)/.SR172