Iraq To Start First West Qurna Gas Production This Year

Iraq will see first natural gas production at its supergiant West Qurna field by the end of this year, Iraqi News reports, citing the Iraqi prime minister and federal energy authorities on Monday.  ExxonMobil withdrew from southern Iraq’s West Qurna 1 field in January, handing operations over to PetroChina, which now enjoys the largest stake in one of Iraq’s biggest fields.  The whole of West Qurna is home to an estimated 43 billion barrels of recoverable reserves, while West Qurna-1 was originally thought to have around 9…