Iranian Petroleum Minister Javad Owji tweeted that his country had received $1.6 billion of the money owed by Iraq in return for Tehran’s gas exports over the years.
“Since the beginning of the year, compared to last year, the volume of the country’s gas exports has increased by 25 percent, and the received amount of money has increased by 90 percent,” he added.
The repayment of debts comes after earlier this month, Iraq’s electricity minister warned of Iraq facing further power shortages as a result of Iran cutting five million cubic meters of exported gas to the country due to Baghdad’s failure to pay debts owed.
Iran has over the past year cut a substantial amount of natural gas supplies to Iraq, as the delay in setting a budget by the Iraqi federal government has impeded Baghdad’s ability to repay over a billion dollars worth of debts owed to Tehran.
The electricity minister’s statement added that the recent development is an additional motivation for the ministry to continue communications with Iran, in hopes of reaching a compromise that will satisfy both sides without leading to a decline in the quality of power provided or harming the interests of the Iraqi people.
In April, Iran agreed to resume natural gas supplies to Iraq, under the condition that Baghdad repays debts owed to Tehran for previous rounds of gas supply.
Acting Electricity Minister Adil Karim said in April that Baghdad owes Tehran 1.69 billion dollars, adding that the latter is responsible for a minimum of 30 percent of Iraq’s energy.
Iraq suffers from chronic electricity shortages, especially felt when summer temperatures reach over 50 degrees Celsius. The high temperatures also lead to very high consumption of power.
Iran cut its gas exports to Iraq last summer as well, claiming they needed it for internal use, leading to blackouts across the neighboring country.
