Azerbaijan, Baku, July 12 / Trend A. Taghiyeva /
British Royal Dutch Shell will begin producing associated gas from the southern oil fields in Iraq within three weeks, spokesman for the Iraqi Oil Ministry Asym Jihad told Trend on Thursday.
"At the first stage, the production volume will amount to 1.7 million cubic meters (60 million cubic feet) per day," he said. "This is expected to be gradually increased in the future."
He said that Iraq has an agreement with Shell and the Japanese company Mitsubishi for gas extraction from the southern oil fields. The agreement is estimated at $17 billion.
Previously Jihad told Trend that Iraq intends to increase gas production and bring it to export volumes.
Jihad said that the reserves of these deposits are estimated at 317 billion cubic meters of gas.
Iraq will increase production from its three biggest gas fields which are Akkaz situated in Anbar area, Siba in Basra and Mansuriya in the Deyali area.
Associated gas from oil fields will be also used, he said.
According to BP, Iraq's proven gas reserves, as of late 2011, were equivalent to 3.6 trillion cubic meters.
