$60bn gas city planned in IraqThursday, October 15, 2009
DUBAI: UAE firms Dana Gas and Crescent Oil are looking to build a gas city in Iraq's western province of Anbar that they hope would draw $60 billion in investment, said province governor Qassim Al Fahdawi.
The gas could come from the province's Akkas gasfield, which Al Fahdawi said Dana and Crescent were also keen to develop with the Oil Ministry.
The plan would use gas Baghdad has previously identified for possible export to the Nabucco pipeline or for export to Syria in order to feed power generation plants as well as petrochemical and fertiliser factories, the governor said.
Europe-sponsored and US-supported Nabucco is envisaged to carry Russian gas to Europe via the Black Sea to bypass transit countries, including Ukraine.
Al Fahdawi said Dana and Crescent had estimated an investment of $8bn for the development of the Akkas Field and added a South Korean firm had also put in an offer to develop the city.
The UAE firms are also building a gas city in the Kurdish region, and plan other similar projects in Egypt and Yemen.
The concept model for the cities is that the UAE firms and partners develop the infrastructure for energy intensive industries that could be fed by gas, for example steel, cement and petrochemicals.
