Khaberni - The Iraqi Ministry of Electricity announced today, Tuesday, the complete stop of Iranian gas supplies to the country, indicating that alternative measures have been taken to overcome the crisis at the production stations until its relaunch.
The ministry's spokesman, Ahmed Musa, explained that the interruption of Iranian gas supplies resulted in a loss of between 4000 to 4500 megawatts of electric power in the network due to the shutdown of some generating units and the limiting of loads on other units at production stations, which affected supply hours, indicating that alternative measures have been taken to overcome the crisis at production stations until the relaunch.
The spokesman added that "the Iranian side sent a telegram informing the Ministry of Electricity of the complete stop of gas pumping due to emergency conditions", explaining that "the ministry resorted to local alternative fuel in coordination with the Ministry of Oil to supply power stations".
He confirmed, "Production is under control, and the stations are still operational despite some being affected by the gas shortage," explaining that "the Ministry of Electricity has prepared for the winter peak loads through maintenance, rehabilitation, and expansion operations ongoing in power generation stations", and pointed out that "there is coordination with the Ministry of Oil to meet the local needs until the return of imported gas pumping."
Iraq relies on thermal and gas power stations that operate on oil and local gas, in addition to gas imported by the government from Iran, at a time when the Iraqi government is still seeking to invest the associated gas from oil extraction operations and avoid burning it in the air.
Iraq is the third highest country globally in rates of burning associated gas after Russia and Iran, with a total of about 18 billion cubic meters of gas burned by Iraq in 2023, according to data from the World Bank.
