Northern Iraq's Gas Crisis

摘要

War has transformed the gas industries in both Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish region and federal areas operated by state-owned North Oil Co. (NOC). In the former, production continues as normal although expansion projects are likely to be delayed. NOC, on the other hand, has taken a real hammering. One peculiarity of the conflict with the brutal Islamic State group, formerly known as Isis, has been its treatment of the Ajeel field, which it captured in early June. The jihadi insurgents allowed NOC workers to keep operating the field, maintaining its 28,000 barrels per day of crude for their smuggling, but also allowing some 120 million cubic feet per day (1.2 billion cubic meters per year) of associated gas to flow to their enemies in Kirkuk, home to NOC (WGI Jul.9'14).