Turkish energy company Turkerler and UAE-based Crescent Petroleum have formed a joint venture firm to export gas from Iraq, the companies said in a statement yesterday.

The venture, Inci Gaz, initially plans to obtain 3.5 billion cubic metres of gas annually in Iraq from 2011, increasing that volume gradually to more than 10 billion cubic metres.

"The Inci Gaz company plans to make the necessary infrastructure investments to transport and supply the natural gas to the Turkish market and potential foreign consumers," the statement said. However, the statement did not disclose financial details of the venture.

Crescent Petroleum said last month that the company and its affiliate Dana Gas would begin supplying natural gas to Iraq's Kurdish region in August. That $650m project will initially supply 150 million cubic feet per day to northern Iraqi power plants, raising the level to 300 million cubic feet per day in early 2009.

Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum signed the agreement to redevelop the Khor Mor field in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region to supply gas to power plants in April 2007.

The field was shut after the Gulf War in 1991.

Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum also signed up last year to evaluate the region's gas reserves and to build a large gas-fed industrial complex called Kurdistan Gas City.



THE NUMBER

3.5: Billion cubic metres of Iraqi natural gas will be obtained from 2011 under the Inci Gaz joint venture