India has initiated exploratory talks with Iraq to assess the possibility of building facilities to liquefy natural gas that is flared at the West Asian country’s oil and gas facilities, and transporting it as liquefied natural gas (LNG) to India, a senior government official said.
The proposal came up during last month’s India-Iraq Joint Commission Meeting in Delhi. India already has strong ties with Iraq, particularly in energy trade with Baghdad being a top source of Delhi’s crude oil imports.
Put simply, gas flaring refers to burning of unwanted and unutilized associated natural gas that is produced during oil production and other processes in the oil industry. A major oil and gas producer, Iraq is one of the biggest gas flaring countries as it lacks facilities to capture and process the gas to convert it into fuels or export it as LNG.
Iraq flares a lot of gas and we are a large importer of gas. So, we are exploring if our companies can set up plants in Iraq to liquefy that gas into LNG,” said the official, who did not wish to be identified. As per estimates by global agencies, Iraq flares around 50 million standard cubic metres per day (mscmd) of natural gas. In 2022-23, India’s LNG imports stood at 19.9 million tonnes, which is equivalent to 71.6 mscmd of natural gas.
The official quoted above however, did not name the Indian companies that may be looking at building liquefaction facilities in Iraq. The estimated timelines are also not clear, considering various impediments, particularly the security situation in Iraq.
