Iraq has approved plans to bujild a university for oil and gas in the southern Basra province with the aim of bolstering the country’s energy sector.

Basra province council member Hassan Shaddad Al-Faris said the Ministry of Planning approved the project under a 'design and build' model.

He told Shafaq news agency that the total cost of the project is around 918 billion Iraqi dinars ($695 million) and that it will be covered by the country’s oil revenues.

The project comes as Iraq continues to rely heavily on oil to fund public spending. Data from Iraq’s Ministry of Finance showed that the country achieved more than IQD114 trillion ($87 billion) in federal budget revenues from January through November 2025, with oil accounting for nearly 88 percent of the total.

Non-oil sources contributed nearly IQD 13.48 trillion ($10 billion), representing the remaining 12 percent of federal revenues.

(Writing by N Saeed; Editing by Anoop Menon) 

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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