Anglo-Turkish Genel buys gas fields in northern Iraq for $150 million

ANKARA

REUTERS Photo

The London Stock Exchange-listed Anglo-Turkish Genel Energy has acquired 36 percent of OVM’s share in the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Bina Bawi natural gas field for $150 million, the company’s Turkish President Mehmet Sepil said in a statement.

Thus, the company became the sole owner of the field in addition to Miran, another KRG field.
Sepil said the two gas fields have a proven capacity of 238 billion cubic meters and offers annually exporting 20 billion cubic meters of gas to Turkey for 15 to 20 years.

Turkey consumed slightly less than 40 billion cubic meters of gas last year, following a record-breaking 45 billion in 2012. The country buys most of its natural gas needs from abroad, with Russia providing some 58 percent.

“For the KRG, it unlocks the Miran and Bina Bawi gas resources and will enable it to satisfy its domestic gas demand and its obligations under the KRG-Turkey Gas Sales Agreement,” Tony Hayward, chief executive of Genel Energy said in the statement.

Genel already has large oil search and production activities in northern Iraq.

Genel Energy currently produces 250,000 barrels of crude daily in its Taq Taq and Tawke fields. Sepil said the company aims at increasing the output by 100 barrels by the end of the first quarter of next year.

“Crude oil exports from northern Iraq to Turkey had exceeded 300,000 barrels per day at the beginning of November, and will reach 400,000 barrels by the end of the year, and half a million barrels in the first quarter of 2015,” Sepil said.