Gulf oil producers will fund a project to connect Iraq’s electricity network with their common power grid, the official Iraq daily Alsabah said on Tuesday. 

The Iraqi Electricity Ministry will soon resume work on the project to link the OPEC country’s power network with that of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) through neighboring Kuwait, the paper said, quoting a Ministry statement. 

Iraq started preparing its power network for that link two years ago but the project came to a standstill due to the spread of Coronavirus and cash shortages. 

“Iraq has completed nearly 81 percent of its preparations for the link with the GCC electricity network…we will soon resume work on the project to set the stage for the connection after we reached an agreement with GCC funds to finance the project…the Ministry will pay debt to those funds in installments,” the statement said. 

The paper quoted Ministry spokesman Ahmed Al-Abadi as saying work would begin within a month and it involves linking Al-Zour power station in Kuwait with the electricity network in Iraq’s Faw Peninsula. 

Abadi said that the first phase of the project would supply Iraq with 500 megawatts (MW) of electricity by 2022, adding that it runs parallel to a similar link-up with nearby Jordan. 

Iraq, which controls the world’s 5th largest proven oil deposits, has also been locked in plans to build solar power stations to slash power imports from neighboring Iran and meet growing domestic demand following war damage to its power sector. 

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)
 
(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com)
 
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