More than 74,000 vehicles in Iraq now run on LPG, oil ministry says

BAGHDAD — The number of vehicles in Iraq converted to run on liquefied petroleum gas has reached 74,500, according to the General Company for Gas Filling and Services at the Ministry of Oil.

Azhar Fadhel Abdul-Hussein, head of the company’s vehicle gas department, told the state-run Al-Sabah newspaper that 26 LPG conversion workshops are currently operating across the country — eight in Baghdad and the rest spread across other governorates, excluding the Kurdistan Region.

“There is a plan to open two more workshops this year due to growing demand for converting more vehicles to gas, especially to standardize the conversion of smaller vehicles,” he said. The ministry is also preparing to establish additional facilities in remote areas of Nineveh and Anbar governorates.

Drivers in Iraq are increasingly switching to LPG due to lower fuel costs compared to gasoline and government efforts to reduce dependence on traditional fuels. LPG also supports environmental goals as a cleaner-burning alternative.

To meet demand, the Ministry of Oil has expanded the number of workshops offering vehicle conversions across various provinces.

In the Kurdistan Region, some vehicle owners — especially taxi and bus drivers — have also begun converting to LPG as gasoline prices rise. Fuel costs in the region have increased by more than 50 percent per liter, after the Kurdistan Regional Government ended fuel subsidies and Baghdad halted the supply of subsidized fuel.

As a result, gasoline now sells for about 1,000 Iraqi dinars per liter (approximately $0.68) in the Kurdistan Region, compared to 450 dinars ($0.30) in federal Iraq.