Iraq is planning a $53 billion megaproject with global energy giants ExxonMobil and PetroChina to use seawater from the Persian Gulf to boost oil production, Iraqi prime minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi announced Tuesday, Kallanish Energy finds.
The project would boost output from Iraq’s southern oilfields, and includes plans to capture natural gas, which is currently being flared, for production, Abdel-Mahdi said at a press conference.
“This is an enormous project and will produce tens of thousands of jobs,” Abdel-Mahdi said, The Associated Press reported. The government projects Iraq will capture $400 billion in revenue over the life of the investment, the prime minister said.
Iraq is producing crude oil at record levels, but officials are targeting even higher output to meet budget projections and finance reconstruction projects following 16 years of war.
Output averaged 4.5 million barrels per day (Mmbpd) in March, second only to Saudi Arabia among Opec members, according to data from the cartel.
Water injection is key to boosting production from oilfields around Basra, in south Iraq, as decades of extraction have lessened the subterranean pressures that push crude naturally toward the surface.
Water can be pumped into hydrocarbon formations to make up for the falling pressure and force oil to the surface, but the process is highly energy-intensive to clean, deoxygenate, and nearly desalinate the seawater before injection, AP reported.
Last week, Abdel-Mahdi, in Berlin, announced Iraq had agreed to a $14 billion “roadmap” with German industrial giant Siemens to rebuild the country’s crumbling electricity sector, AP reported.
Linking the two announcements Tuesday, the prime minister said ramping up power generation through electricity sector investment would be vital to the success of the oilfields megaproject.
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