Iraq’s electricity minister admits ‘acute crisis’ as gas supply cuts worsen power outages

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s Electricity Ministry has admitted that the country is experiencing an “acute crisis” as prolonged cuts in Iranian gas supplies continue to paralyze the power grid, leaving millions of Iraqis enduring unprecedented electricity shortages. Iran itself is facing its own energy crisis that has hit industry and public institutions.

“Neither I nor the minister of electricity can say that the electricity sector is in good health, or that the ministry’s work is free from failures and challenges. Today, we are facing an acute crisis,” said ministry spokesperson Ahmed Moussa in an interview on Al-Rasheed TV. “Supply hours have dropped to six hours for every one hour off—something we didn’t even experience during peak summer periods.”

Some excerpts of Moussa’s interview on Al-Rasheed TV:

Neither I nor the minister of electricity can say that the electricity sector is in good health, and that the ministry’s work is free from failures and challenges. Today, we are experiencing an acute crisis, as supply hours have decreased to six hours for every one hour off, which did not even happen during peak summer periods.

Our stations are thermal, gas, and hydroelectric, but the gas-powered ones constitute 80% of the national production system. If there is a question about why gas systems were purchased when Iraq does not have gas, it should be directed to those who bought and installed them 10 or 15 years ago.

Part of the gas stations operate on domestic gas, while the majority run on Iranian gas, which has decreased to zero in the Baghdad and central regions. This has caused a loss of more than 8,700 megawatts from the national grid.

The Iranians informed the minister of electricity during negotiations in Baghdad that the pipelines had encountered emergency conditions requiring maintenance without notifying the Iraqi side for 15 days, after the minister confronted them with the penalty clauses and terms of the contract concluded with them.

We have penalty clauses regarding periods of Iranian gas interruption, and we have indeed fined them. But what benefit do people gain from fines when production plants stop due to gas outages? The maintenance period was supposed to end last Monday, but the gas is still cut off until now, and they have informed us that maintenance needs another 15 days.”.

The Ministry of Oil could only supply us with enough kerosene to operate 4 out of 18 generating units at the Bismayah plant, so as not to cause a crisis for private generator owners, factories, and vehicles.

The Turkmen side requires depositing funds into its account at the Trade Bank of Iraq, and the funds have indeed been deposited. However, the Trade Bank has not yet notified the Turkmen side, and we do not know the reason for their delay.

Qatar has expressed its readiness to supply Iraq with gas, but constructing the pipeline will take three years, due to Iraq’s lack of liquefied gas conversion platforms.

We have not received a single dinar to implement our investment plan for this year, while regional interconnection projects are investment projects.