Iraq-Russia Talks On Development Of Mansouria Gas Field Already Ongoing - Ambassador

The talks between Baghdad and Russia on the development of the Mansouria gas field in Iraq are already underway, while the issue may be brought up during the upcoming visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Iraqi Ambassador to Russia Haidar Mansour Hadi told Sputnik on Thursday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th September, 2019) The talks between Baghdad and Russia on the development of the Mansouria gas field in Iraq are already underway, while the issue may be brought up during the upcoming visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Iraqi Ambassador to Russia Haidar Mansour Hadi told Sputnik on Thursday.

Last week, Iraqi Oil Minister Thamer Ghadhban said that Russia's oil giants Gazprom and Lukoil had expressed interest in developing Mansouria gas field. The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed last week that Lavrov would visit Baghdad and Erbil on October 7-8. The foreign minister is slated to meet with the Iraqi top leadership and discuss burgeoning energy cooperation between the countries, among other issues.

"As for Mansouria project, there are talks between the Oil Ministry and Gazpromneft. There might be a delegation accompanying Mr. Lavrov to Baghdad from the big companies to also talk about this. But both sides have talked before and both sides have shown interest in supporting each other.

But there is a certain procedure that the ministry of oil takes to verify companies, to award contacts to companies," Hadi said, when asked whether the talks on the gas field are already ongoing or would take place in the foreseeable future.

The hydrocarbon deposit was initially set to be developed by a consortium of energy companies led by Turkish Petroleum Corporation, but the operations were suspended due to the activities of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, outlawed in Russia.

After the consortium had failed to resume development of Mansouria after the IS was defeated, the Iraqi Oil Ministry said that it would develop the gas field using the state-run companies. The ministry, however, was reportedly looking for international energy firms to acquire a minority stake in the project. The gas field is expected to produce up to 300 million standard cubic feet of natural gas daily.