By Aref Mohammed
BASRA, Iraq, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Iraq is looking for foreignpartners to build and operate a second venture to process gasreleased as a by-product of oil production in its southernfields, state-run South Gas Company said on Tuesday.
The new venture will collect gas currently being flaredbecause of a lack of processing capacity, South Gas Co. directorgeneral Ihsan Abdul Jabbar told Reuters in Basra, southern Iraq.
To promote competition, the new partners cannot be Shell or Mitsubishi, as the two are part of BasrahGas Co., the first gas processing venture which came on-streamin 2013, in partnership with South Gas Co., he said.
About 600 million cubic feet (17 million cubic metres) a dayof gas are currently being flared from the southern fields and700 million cubic feet per day processed, said Abdul Jabbar,also chairman of Basrah Gas.
Basrah Gas hopes to increase the volume of gas processed tonearly one billion cubic feet a day by the end of the year, hesaid. The gas processed is fed into the local grid and some ofit exported as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and condensates.
Iraq expects to almost triple the revenue of LPG andcondensate exports this year to more than $200 million, from $69million in 2016, said Abdul Jabbar.
Iraq has some of the world's largest oil reserves but mostof its gas is a by-product of crude oil production. It is itscheduled to bring on-stream its first dedicated natural gasfield, Siba, in mid-2017.
(Writing by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Adrian Croft)
