Caspian Report - Issue 06 - Winter 2014

EUROPEAN NATURAL GAS DEMAND
Eu27 gas demand bcm/year
IRAQ NATURAL GAS RESERVES
3.2 tcm (total)
7.5-8.5 bcm
636 bcm
567 bcm 2.1 tcm
1.0 tcm
524 bcm
bcm/y
bcm/y
2005 2010 2020 Under KRG control Middle-South Iraq Probable reserves estimations
Kaynak : http://www.ce.uw.edu.pl/pliki/pw/y13_zieniewicz.pdf
Kaynak : http://www.oxfordenergy.org/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/NG-82.pdf
3.2. Northern Iraq
In 2009, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki attended the signing of the
Nabucco Pipeline Intergovernmental
Agreement in Ankara and stated
that Iraq could contribute up to 15
bcm to the Southern Corridor, raising
hopes that Iraq was on its way
to becoming a major supplier to
Europe. Nearly two-thirds of Iraq’s
gas resources lie in the south, so the
political and financial issues around
the exploitation, transportation, and
sale of oil resources from the Kurdistan
Regional Government (KRG)
in the north need not apply. Nevertheless,
Baghdad’s plans have been
complicated by the KRG’s exploration
of possibilities of supplying
natural gas to Turkey.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration,
part of the Department
of Energy, estimates that Iraq has
3.2 Tcm of confirmed gas reserves,
making it the twelfth largest holder
in the world, while the Paris-based
International Energy Agency estimates
total confirmed and unconfirmed
reserves at between 7.5 and
8.5 Tcm. However, three-quarters of
the gas is associated with crude oil
deposits, and the majority of that is
flared. Thus Iraq has sought to reduce
that waste in favour of export,
domestic consumption and re-injection
to increase oil recovery.
Until late last year, little progress
had been made towards this goal
due to entrenched disagreements
over energy revenue sharing between
the central government in
Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional
Government (KRG), as well as dwindling
progress on domestic electrification
and investment in domestic
gas infrastructure.
The autonomous region’s prime
minister and top energy official travelled
to Baghdad this February, intensifying
efforts to settle the longrunning
dispute. The disagreement
concerns revenue-sharing of the
proceeds from exports of oil from
Kurdistan via a new pipeline to Turkey,
constructed due to the interminable
delays around Nabucco, which
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CASPIAN REPORT, WINTER 2014