ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Qatar to start gas supplies to Iraq in winter, an Iraqi official said on Wednesday without specifying the timeline of the start of the imports.
“We reached an agreement with Qatar to provide us with quantities of gas in winter … it could start within months,” Adil Karim, Iraq’s acting electricity minister said during an interview with Iraqia News.
The imports will be delivered to the country through Qatar’s ports.
Iraq and Qatar discussed gas supplies to the former to address its power shortages in February.
Iraq suffers from chronic electricity shortages, especially felt when summer temperatures reach over 50 degrees Celsius. The high temperatures also lead to a very high consumption of power.
It relies heavily on Iranian natural gas for power. Over the past year, Iran has cut gas exports to Iraq repeatedly over unpaid debts, leading to blackouts across the border.
However, Tehran has agreed to resume gas supplies to Baghdad in April following a deal between the two.
“It has been agreed with Iran to supply Iraq with 50 million cubic meters of gas per day,” Karim said, adding that Baghdad needs Tehran’s gas for the next “five to 10 years.”
Iraq is in arrears to Iran, owing it 1.69 billion dollars. Iran is responsible for a minimum of 30 percent of Iraq’s energy, according to Karim.
Electricity shortages in Iraq are also caused by multiple factors, including poor basic services, the government’s inability to deliver these services, rampant corruption, and terror attacks on the power grid.
The Iraqi ministry has been working on increasing electricity supplies to the country for a while.
It has finished its technical supplies to import electricity from Turkey, and reached an agreement with Jordan to import 150 megawatts of power later this year.
