Iraq renews gas drive

Baghdad turns again to China to develop its second largest gasfield

Iraq’s two largest non-associated gas deposits have languished unexploited for some seven years, even while the country's ability to supply year-round electricity to its increasingly disillusioned population relies on importing the resource from Iran. But new contract awards finally promise some progress on improving domestic supply. A long-delayed project to harness associated gas from some of the country’s biggest oilfields—flaring from which over the past decade represents another egregious financial (and environmental) failure—is a central plank of a wide-ranging investment pact signed with Total last month, confirming renewed focus on a gas self-sufficiency drive. Pressure from Washingt