Shell Iraq announced the Final Investment Decision (FID) taken by the Basrah Gas Company (BGC) on its growth program, which aims to increase current capacity by 40%, Pipeline reported.

The program will capture flared gas from three major oilfields, namely Rumaila, West Qurna 1 and Zubair, and then convert it into dry gas for power generation in the domestic market and exporting.

“With BGC having recently achieved a new production level of over 1 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d), Shell Iraq is proud to have now also reached this growth milestone with an industry-leading competitive project,” said Marcus Antonini, vice president for Shell Iraq.

The growth program also enables higher-margin refrigerated liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) exports from the refurbished and expanded storage and marine terminal at Um Qasr port in Basrah.