Iraqi gas is unlikely to be exported to Europe via the planned Nabucco pipeline before 2020, London-based consultant Jennifer Coolidge said on Tuesday.
According to the Calgary Herald, Coolidge told a roundtable at the European Autumn Gas Conference: "It might not be . . . until sometime after 2020 when large exports could be coming out".
Coolidge said once the government had been formed, the next step would be the passing of hydrocarbon legislation. Kurdistan and Baghdad then needed to agree a unified approach to allow small amounts of gas to be shipped out of northern Iraq.
Meanwhile Stefan Judisch, the chief executive officer of RWE Supply & Trading, took issue with that view, saying that the Kurdish provinces in Iraq are safe, "full of easy-to-access gas," and can bank on a functioning transit pipeline stretching almost to the Turkish border.
Judisch expects to sign a deal with the KRG by the end of this year.
(Sources: Calgary Herald, UPI)
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