By John Lee.
Having sold its stake in the West Qurna 1 project to Japan’s Itochu, Shell is now said to be “fully committed” to the giant Basra Gas Company (BGC), which captures gas from Iraq’s southern oilfields.
Frits Klap, managing director of BGC, told Reuters that processing capacity has more than tripled to 938 million standard cubic feet (scf) per day since operations started in 2013, and further expansion is planned:
“We are going to go for something called BNGL, or Basra NGL (natural gas liquids) expansion, which really is going to take us from 1 bcf to 1.4 bcf through two trains, each of 200 million scf per day.”
Shell has a 44-percent stake in the $17-billion, 25-year project, with Iraq having 51 percent, and Japan’s Mitsubishi 5 percent.
(Source: Reuters)