Iranian gas supplies to Iraq stop
Power transmission towers. Photo: Getty Images
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The Iraqi Minister of Electricity, Ziyad Ali Fadel, stated on Sunday that Iraq’s imports of the Iranian gas completely stopped due to maintenance works in the gas pipeline inside Iran.
“Gas supplies from Iran completely stopped now,” Fadel said during the opening of the eighth edition of Iraq Energy Exhibition.
Fadel explained that this issue caused a decrease in electric power production at a rate of 7,500 megawatts, 4,500 megawatts of which are in Baghdad.
Fadel clarified that the current rate of electric power production in Iraq is only 15,000 megawatts out of 24,000 megawatts, due to Iran’s halt in gas supplies to Iraqi power plants.
The Iraqi minister indicated that he will seek to solve the problem of the Iranian gas during his upcoming visit to Iran.
“Our negotiations with Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries are ongoing steadily to complete electrical interconnection projects,” Fadel elaborated.
“Iraq is determined to solve the electricity issue through agreements with major international companies such as Siemens in Germany and General Electric (GE) in the United States to implement important projects, some of which will come into force during 2023,” Fadel revealed.
The Iraqi government is currently working to tackle the problem of gas imports from Iran, which are 40 million cubic meters per day, in cooperation with international companies to invest in the Iraqi gas, Fadel added.