"We have the Ronaki project in the Kurdistan Region to provide 24-hour electricity in a very short time," Ahmed Mufti, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) deputy natural resources minister said at the Iraq Development Platform conference in Baghdad. “The backbone of electricity in Kurdistan is the gas industry.”
Mufti stressed that the KRG has a “very successful plan” to materialize the plan.
The Khor Mor gas field in Sulaimani province, operated by UAE-based Dana Gas, produces over 500 million cubic feet of gas per day and will increase to 750 million cubic feet within a year, according to Mufti.
Abdullah al-Qadi, executive director of Dana Gas affiliate Crescent Petroleum, stated during the panel that their goal is to increase gas production to a level that provides 24-hour electricity in the Kurdistan Region.
“We are currently in the expansion phase, and we hope to complete this phase before the end of this year and add more than 270 million cubic feet to the network, which will be a very important incentive to achieve the goal of 24 hours of electricity in the Kurdistan Region,” he said. “After achieving this goal, the gas will be distributed to other Iraqi provinces.”
But there have been frequent power cuts in the Kurdistan Region in recent months, the most recent being a gas transportation problem at Khor Mor on Saturday that resulted in a 700 megawatt reduction of electricity output.
Last month, a gas leak at the field forced a region-wide “total shutdown” of power generation.
Unreliable electricity is a frequent headache in the Kurdistan Region. High demand, financial problems, and shortage of fuel supplies mean power stations in the Kurdistan Region cannot always operate at full capacity and the electricity ministry has been incapable of providing round-the-clock power.
When the national supply cuts out, people rely on private diesel-fueled generators that are costly and polluting.
During the panel, Mufti called on the federal government in Baghdad to control the flared gas produced from oil extraction so that it could be used and exported.
The flaring process is when oil wells burn the excess gas they cannot store or use, and is considered a convenient way to deal with the waste product known as associated petroleum gas. The process, however, is among the main reasons for global climate change.
Mufti highlighted that 90 percent of Iraq’s total non-associated gas production is in the Kurdistan Region.
"Currently there is only non-associated gas in Kurdistan. We should focus on the production of non-associated gas and control the associated gas," he said.
Iraq wants to eliminate the deadly and toxic practice of gas flaring by 2030 and bring it to zero. The plan is to absorb the gas and use it for electricity generation and export instead of flaring, according to deputy oil minister Izzat Sabir.
During the panel, Sabir said that Baghdad has allocated $10 billion to eliminate gas flaring, during which time the country is expected to earn $30 billion from gas production.
Sabir said 75 percent of Iraqi gas is associated gas and 25 percent is non-associated gas.
For years, Iraq’s electrical grid has depended on gas imports from Iran to run its power plants. The country lost nearly 5,000 megawatts of power in July 2023 due to Iran completely halting the supply of gas to the southern regions of Iraq, as well as decreasing exports to Baghdad and other central provinces.
