Iraq meets with Shell over a plan to deliver gas to the Nibras project

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – Meetings between Iraqi and Shell officials are aimed at developing a strategy for gas delivery to the massive Nibras project, which would make the OPEC country one of the world’s biggest makers of petrochemicals.

With a potential cost of around $8.5 billion and an annual production capacity of about 1.8 million tonnes, the project is a joint venture between Iraq and Shell.

With its headquarters in Basra, the oil hub of south Iraq, Nibras would bring in around $1.4 billion in net earnings annually, with Shell holding 49% of the company’s shares. Said to be the fourth biggest petrochemical complex in the world, 51% of the project will be under the jurisdiction of the Iraqi Oil and Industry Ministries.

The project will be finished in five to six years, and over its 35-year operating lifetime, it will bring in almost $90 billion in total income.

In May 2023, Iraq’s oil ministry called on Saudi Arabia’s Aramco to participate in the massive petrochemical project in Nibras.