Iraq Needs Gas for Power Generation

Over the next seven years, Iraq will need Iranian natural gas supplies to feed its power-generation plants, because domestic gas output will not be enough, Iraq’s Minister of Electricity Qasim al-Fahdawi said. “New stations are entering into service soon, hence the country’s need for gas imports,” Iraqi News quoted al-Fahdawi as saying, Oil Price reported. Natural gas output from Iraq’s southern fields in Basra Province will not be enough to meet the demand for powering electricity generation, the minister said. However, the Iraqi minister said the country’s need for gas imports could lessen in the future, after planned fields for producing non-associated gas come on stream, such as Siba, Mansouriya and Western Anbar. Last month, Iran started exporting natural gas to its neighbor Iraq, after a four-year delay due to the challenging security situation in war-torn Iraq.