TotalEnergies signs contracts worth $27bn for oil, gas and solar in Iraq

TotalEnergies signs contracts worth $27bn for oil, gas and solar in Iraq

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French energy group TotalEnergies has signed contracts worth $27bn for the production and exploitation of gas, oil and solar energy in Iraq, the country’s government announced on Sunday.

The company will make an initial investment of $10bn, chief executive Patrick Pouyanné said at the contract signing in Baghdad as the deal was unveiled.

“This is the biggest investment by a western company in Iraq,” oil minister Ihsan Abdul Jaber was reported as saying by AFP. “Setting up these projects is the challenge we face now.”

Iraq has been courting foreign investors in the hope of boosting oil output and natural gas capture as it struggles to alleviate chronic electricity failures, with serious blackouts fuelling social unrest.

As the second-largest oil producing country in the Opec, Iraq receives more than 90 per cent of its revenues from crude sales and was hit badly when the spread of coronavirus cut demand for oil and prices tumbled. The country’s gross domestic product shrank 11 per cent in 2020, according to the IMF, and poverty rose amid worsening unemployment.

The contract with TotalEnergies covers four projects over 25 years, according to a source close