ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned ZhenHua Oil said on Sunday that Iraq is its “core market” and pledged to expand investments in the country’s energy sector, as Baghdad pushes to boost production and cut gas flaring.
“We regard [the] Iraq market as our core market globally. So in the coming years, we will emphasize and we will concentrate our capital and our technical [capacity] in this market,” Abu Khema Petroleum, General Manager Zhang Bo, told Rudaw on the sidelines of the Baghdad International Energy Conference.
He said that ZhenHua entered Iraq in 2008 and has invested around $10 billion to date. The company operates the Ahdab oil field southeast of Baghdad with China National Petroleum Corporation, the East Baghdad Oil Field Southern Part (EBS), and the Abu Khema field in Muthanna province. In August, Iraq’s state news agency reported that ZhenHua was awarded an exploration contract for the al-Qarnain block in Najaf province.
Bo noted that the company is “in the mid[dle] of contracting several projects” to reduce gas flaring at Abu Khema and EBS.
Iraq is among the world’s top offenders for gas flaring, ranking third after Russia and Iran, according to the World Bank.