Iran to resume gas supplies to Iraq in summer

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran has agreed to resume gas supplies to Iraq following a deal between the two, with Baghdad repaying debts owed to Tehran, an official from the Iraqi electricity ministry said on Thursday.

An Iraqi delegation, headed by the electricity minister Adil Karim, visited Tehran on Tuesday to discuss the resumption of Iranian gas supplies to Iraq to aid with the latter’s power shortages during summer.

The visit proceeded “positively” as the two sides had reached an agreement to resume natural gas supplies to Baghdad, Ahmed Mousa, spokesperson for the Iraqi electricity ministry told state media in an interview on Thursday. 

“The visit emphasized on raising the volume of imported gas to Iraq and releasing it in amounts that would suffice the Iraqi need, and paying the amounts of debt,” Mousa stated, adding that “the ministry hopes to add four thousand megawatts with an entry of additional obstetric units, to raise production to 25 thousand megawatts in the summer.”

The trip came less than two weeks after Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi directed the electricity ministry to assign a team to discuss natural gas supplies with Iran. 

Iraq is in arrears to Iran, which cut its gas exports to its neighboring country last summer, leading to blackouts.

Speaking to Rudaw’s Nwenar Fatih ahead of the official trip on Tuesday, Karim said Baghdad owes Tehran 1.69 billion dollars adding that the latter is responsible for a minimum of 30 percent of Iraq’s energy.

Karim also spoke to state media after he concluded his visit to Tehran, stating that both countries had agreed on the timing to repay the debts, but did not disclose when.

Rudaw English reached out to the ministry’s spokesperson, Mousa, for clarification but he was not immediately available.

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.

The quantity of energy needed across the country has “increased more than 600 percent” since 2003, the minister noted.

The shortages 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.

Iraq expects to receive 55 million cubic feet of gas from Iran starting May 1, more than double the 25 million it receives at the moment, Karim said.

The Iraqi ministry has been working on increasing electricity supplies 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 in late 2022.