When Thamir Ghadhban took over as oil minister a year ago this week (MEES, 26 October 2018), it ushered in cautious optimism that many of Iraq’s logjammed oil and gas plans would finally push on toward development.

And on some fronts – most notably in the gas sector – substantial progress has been made. Baghdad has awarded a slew of contracts that could see Iraq’s wasteful gas flaring habits considerably reduced (or even ended) within three or four years , if carried out on schedule (MEES, 19 July). Shell-led Basra Gas Company (BGC) too is finally making progress on bringing gas processing capacity to 1.4bn cfd (MEES, 15 February). (CONTINUED - 862 WORDS)