Iraq renews gas drive
Baghdad turns again to China to develop its second largest gasfield
Iraq’s two largest non-associated gas deposits have languished unexploited for some seven years, even while the country's ability to supply year-round electricity to its increasingly disillusioned population relies on importing the resource from Iran. But new contract awards finally promise some progress on improving domestic supply. A long-delayed project to harness associated gas from some of the country’s biggest oilfields—flaring from which over the past decade represents another egregious financial (and environmental) failure—is a central plank of a wide-ranging investment pact signed with Total last month, confirming renewed focus on a gas self-sufficiency drive. Pressure from Washingt
Also in this section
9 January 2026
The Latin American producer’s crude prospects rely on a multi-pronged approach where even the relatively easy wins will take considerable time, effort and cost
9 January 2026
While many forecasters are reasserting the importance of oil and gas, petrostates should be under no illusion things are changing, and faster than they might think
8 January 2026
Indonesia and Malaysia are at the dawn of breathtaking digital capabilities. Their energy infrastructure must keep up with their ambitions
8 January 2026
The next five years will be critical for the North Sea, and it will be policy not geology that will decide the basin’s future
