French energy services contractor Technip said Thursday it was awarded a contract to help reduce the flaring of natural gas from Iraqi fields in Basra province. The French company, through a partnership with China HuanQiu Contracting & Engineering Corp., said it secured a contract from Basra Gas Co. for front-end engineering design for the Ar Ratawi Natural Gas Liquids project in southern Iraq. Technip said the project would help Iraq take advantage of natural gas associated with oil fields by reducing gas flaring. The company said utilized gas would be available for domestic power. Technip said the facility would be able to process as much as 530 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. No target completion date or financial terms of the deal were disclosed. Basra Gas Co. is a joint venture between the Iraqi South Gas Co., Shell and Mitsubishi. Copyright 2014 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.