The seventh Iraqi Energy Exhibition and Conference kicked off in Baghdad on Friday, attended by local and international firms, at a time when the country faces major issues when it comes to providing electricity.
“The electricity produced for Erbil is sufficient; the problem is that they don’t have fuel. We produce 4,000 megawatts of electricity in Erbil, Sulaimani, and Duhok… The problem is that there’s not enough gas for all the turbines. If there were, there would be electricity in Erbil 24 hours a day,” Ahmad Ismail Saleh, the chairman of Mass Group Holding, told Rudaw’s Halkawt Aziz on Friday.
The chairman stated that the company is responsible for providing 95 percent of Baghdad’s electricity, equivalent to an output of 4,500 megawatts, adding that they are now seeking to expand their ventures to Turkey and Romania, as they have already done in Jordan.
Acting Iraqi Electricity Minister Adil Karim also attended the expo on Friday, telling Rudaw that the country needs an additional 13,000 megawatts to be able to provide electricity for the full day, and that authorities are seeking to work on the issue by using recently passed emergency legislation to repay debts owed to Iran as soon as possible.
The Iraqi parliament on Wednesday approved the Emergency Support Law for Food Security and Development bill, in light of its failure to form the government needed to approve a budget for 2022. The new law is valued at 25 billion Iraq Dinars (over 17 billion dollars), with four billion Iraqi Dinars (over 2.7 billion dollars) allocated to repaying debts of imported gas and energy.
Iran has cut a substantial amount of natural gas supplies to Iraq, as the delay in setting a budget by Iraq’s federal government has impeded Baghdad’s ability to repay debts owed to Tehran.
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 a very high consumption of power.
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