Qatar eyes investment in Iraq upstream projects
DOHA, January 4, 2018
Qatar Petroleum (QP) has confirmed that it plans to invest in Iraq’s upstream businesses and at the moment the company is exploring best ways to enter the market, a report said.
QP President & CEO Saad Sherida Al Kaabi yesterday said he had met with Iraq’s Oil Minister Jabar Al Luaibi and had conveyed QP's interest in investing Iraq’s upstream business. The Iraqi minister had welcomed that, he said, according to a report in the Peninsula newspaper.
He added: “Iraq is a very important country in the region. It has huge resources and needs a lot of investments. It is a brotherly country, and we would like to help and assist in developing their upstream business.”
Iraq invited foreign companies to bid for contracts to explore and develop oil and natural gas reserves in nine new blocks as the Opec member nation seeks to boost its output capacity.
Al-Kaabi said Qatar’s North Field gas expansion project is moving full steam ahead to achieve the targeted 100 million tonnes natural gas production by 2024.
“The engineering part of the expansion is moving full steam ahead. We are in the initial engineering phase (of designing) for expansion. That’s going full steam ahead. It has nothing to do with the partnerships and the structure of how we are going to form the joint venture or who the partner is. That’s also being worked in parallel,” he was quoted as saying by Gulf Times.
