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Projects awarded by OPEC member Iraq to foreign companies to develop its gas resources will help tackle a festering power shortage caused by lower Iranian gas supplies, an Iraqi official was reported on Tuesday as saying.
Gas imports from neighbouring Iran have cost Iraq nearly 6 trillion Iraqi dinars ($4.5 billion) annually over the past decade, Electricity Ministry spokesman Ahmed Mousa said.
Mousa told the official Iraqi News Agency that the power shortages have exacerbated because of a decision by Tehran to reduce gas supplies due to Baghdad’s failure to pay.
“Iraq is now suffering from a power supply crisis after a decline in Iranian gas supplies because of Iraq’s failure to pay for the gas,” Mousa said.
“This crisis has existed since 2003 due to faulty policies…we hope that the crisis will be tackled when we start to reply on our gas rather than foreign supplies.”
Iraq, which has awarded several concession areas for gas development over the past months, controls nearly 4 trillion cubic metres of natural gas deposits, according to the Oil Ministry.
(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)
