Iraq has announced that it would halt gas imports from neighbouring Iran within two years after mega projects to develop its gas fields take shape.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Sudani said his country possesses massive gas resources and that projects awarded recently to some foreign firms, including France’s TotalEnergies, would support Baghdad’s bid for gas independency.

“Within two years, Iraq will be able to completely depend on its own gas resources to run its power facilities,” Sudani told the CNN TV network on Thursday.

Sudani, who spoke in Arabic through an interpreter, said in the interview published by the Iraqi News Agency on Friday that his government would push ahead with projects to tap the country’s gas deposits and achieve self-sufficiency.

Iraq, which controls the world’s fifth largest proven oil deposits, is heavily reliant on sanction-hit Iran for gas feedback for its power utilities.

Official Iraqi data showed gas imports from Iran have cost Baghdad nearly 6 trillion Iraqi dinars ($4.5 billion) annually over the past decade.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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