announced French group Total Energy The giant on Wednesday announced an agreement to implement a contract in Iraq worth ten billion dollars, which was signed last year 2021 It was delayed due to disagreements, particularly with regard to Iraq’s participation in the project scheduled for25 years, which aims in particular to improve a crumbling power grid that causes blackouts everywhere.
On Tuesday, Iraq agreed to a smaller stake of up to 30 percent in the project, which Baghdad hopes will attract foreign investment again to the war-torn country.
The Iraqi prime minister visited Paris while the group’s CEO, Patrick Pouyanné, was in Baghdad this weekend at the invitation of the prime minister, according to Total Energy.
In the end, Baghdad, which wanted 40 percent of the project, agreed to reduce its share to 30 percent, as revealed in a report published by the Iraqi Council of Ministers late Tuesday evening, given “the importance of resolving the aforementioned issue and proceeding with the signing of related agreements.”
Shortly after that, the French group published a statement announcing an agreement with the Iraqi government on “a thirty percent stake in the Basra Oil Company” in this project called the “Integrated Gas Growth Project” (Gas Growth Integrated Project).
The consortium will include Total Energy (45 percent) and the Basra Oil Company (30 percent) and Qatar Energy (25 percent).
The French group said, “Thanks to the talks that took place in the past months, especially for four times between Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa al-Sudani and the general manager of the company, Patrick Pouyanne, the Iraqi government and Total Energy confirmed all the terms of the contract signed in 2021 They jointly defined the terms and mutual guarantees needed to move the project forward.
Total Energy welcomed the Iraqi government’s commitment to this contract, which sends a strong and positive signal to foreign investments in the country.
“The largest investment of a Western company”
The dilapidated Iraqi electricity network, which is a side victim of corruption, suffers from difficulties, as power outages continue sometimes 12 An hour a day in this hydrocarbon-rich country.
The French group, which has been in Iraq since the 1920s, will invest in the oil exploitation sector, with its partners, in four projects in the fields of fuel and electricity production.
One of these projects aims to “collect flared gas from three oil fields to supply gas to power stations.” Another project is the development of a giant solar power plant with a capacity of 1 gigawatts “to feed the electricity grid in the Basra region”.
In agreement with the Iraqi authorities, Total Energy invited the Saudi company ACWA Power to “participate in this solar energy project.”
In this context, the group stated that investments worth about ten billion dollars are supposed to also allow “the construction of a seawater treatment plant with the aim of maintaining pressure on some oil fields and increasing regional production.”
A fourth project relates to oil to increase production at the Artawi oil field in southern Iraq from 85 thousand barrels per day 210 thousands of barrels.
When signing the contract in 2021The Iraqi government said it was “the largest investment by a Western company” in the country.
And then I talked about a contract worth the total 27 One billion euros to invest in the country’s production of oil, gas and solar energy. But the investments currently amount to 10 billion euros, which were confirmed on Wednesday.
FRANCE 24/AFP/Archyde.com