Shafaq News/ On Thursday, the IraqiMinistry of Electricity spokesperson Ahmed Moussa revealed that a shortage inimported Iranian gas has led to a loss of more than 7,000 megawatts in thenational power grid.
Moussa told Shafaq News, “Some powerplants rely on domestic gas, including those in the southern regions, whileothers operate with gas supplied in coordination with the Ministry of Oil, aswell as various types of fuel.”
“Some plants operate exclusively onimported gas, which means that any gas shortage negatively affects theiroperation.” He clarified, “The supply of Iranian gas has dropped to 15 millioncubic meters per day, coupled with a halt in maintenance of domestic gas in thesouthern region, resulting in a loss of 7,600 megawatts from the power grid.”
"Currently, electricityproduction stands at 18,000 megawatts," he added.
On Wednesday, the Iraqi Parliament’sOil and Gas Committee hosted the Minister of Electricity, Ziad Ali Fadhel, andthe ministry's staff to discuss fuel supply.
Fadhel discussed the Ministry'sprovision of approximately 200,000 tons of gas in case the supply of Iraniangas to power plants is cut off.
He explained that some plants, like Al-Bismayah,Al-Sadr, and Al-Mansouriya, rely on imported Iranian gas, while other plantsuse different types of fuel, confirming that “it is currently impossible tooperate these stations solely on national gas.”
Despite having major oil and gasreserves, Iraq has been suffering from a severe electricity crisis for years,and relying mostly on Iran to provide power.
Recently, to address this, thecountry has been working on several projects with neighboring countriesincluding linking its power grid with those of Jordan and the Gulf CooperationCouncil (GCC) states.