With budgets already stretched thin, Iraq’s budget is being taxed even more by its policy of flaring natural gas while paying high prices to import natural gas from Iran. The process of flaring natural gas—a byproduct of oil production—is controversial on climate grounds. Flaring is the process of burning this natural gas, and is employed when it doesn’t make economic or practical sense for oil companies to capture the natural gas and sell it. But the spokesman for the Ministry of Electricity, Ahmed Moussa , said that paying high prices for gas from Iran in large quantities for the purpose of generating electric power “constitutes a major defect,” according to Shafaq. Moussa proposes instead that the Parliamentary Oil and Energy Committee move to take advantage of local gas instead of paying high prices for Iran’s. Over the last few days, Iran has cut the amount of gas it has […]