The Parliamentary Oil Committee member Representative Durgham al-Maliki said on Thursday that the Iraqi treasury will save an estimated four billion dollars a year by investing in gas emissions in the Basra oilfield.
“The issue that started to deteriorate in the 1980s and cast a shadow on the environmental file and the purity of the atmosphere, which directly affected the health of citizens,” Al-Maliki stated. “Gas emissions and the burning of large quantities in the atmosphere of the Basra fields in southern Iraq.”
He continued: “The government concluded an agreement with the French company Total to solve part of the problem of gas emissions, and it can be invested in a way that saves an amount of no less than four billion dollars annually, which shows the extent of the economic and environmental benefit in one context.”
He noted that “the contract is not limited to investing in gas, but also includes extending a pipeline to withdraw seawater for use in extracting oil instead of relying on fresh water, which has a positive impact in several aspects.”
He pointed out that “investing in gas associated with extracting oil and other fields has a strategic impact on the national economy and the environment in general, due to the hard currency that can contribute to strengthening the country’s treasury.”
Because so much gas was used during the oil extraction process, Basra and the oil regions experienced severe air pollution.
