By Maha El Dahan and Muayad Hameed
Dubai/Baghdad (Reuters) – Iraq’s attempt to alleviate chronic power shortages from the neighboring Turkmenistan from the neighboring Iran has failed under the US pressure and struggled for alternatives to keep Baghdad’s lights open.
The oil -rich Iraq has fought to provide power to its citizens since the 2003 US invasion, which overthrew Saddam Hussein and forced many people to trust expensive special generators, caused economic difficulties and social unrest.
Hussain Saad, a 43 -year -old owner of a butcher shop in Kasra neighborhood of Baghdad, is struggling to protect his livelihood and prevent his flesh from deteriorating in the scorching heat.
“This is not just my pity – all the Iraqi people suffer,” he said.
Firstly, an agreement proposed in 2023 would see Turkmenistan’s export gas to Iraq via Iran, which was among the two countries. Within the scope of the swap agreement, Iran would receive gas and supply to Iraq, but this violated sanctions against the US, which required Washington’s approval.
This confirmation never came. WE President Trump‘s management has doubled in the “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran.
Caught between two allies
Reuters spoke to four Iraqi officials and reviewed seven official documents to reveal how Washington was looking for approval for months to allow Baghdad to import about 5 billion cubic meters (BCM) through Iran.
According to the draft agreement of the trade agreement by Reuters, Iraq imported 5,025 BCM Turkmen gas annually and was facilitated through Iran’s national Iranian gas company (NIGC).
According to a document, Iran will not receive money, but it will receive gas for its needs, which does not have more than 23% of the total volume from Turkmenistan.
According to the same document, Baghdad also offered to allow a third -party international monitor to control the agreement of the agreement with US sanctions and anti -money laundering rules.
However, despite the lobbying that lasted for months, US objections ultimately squeezed the agreement because Washington has increased its pressure on Iran on its nuclear plans. This leaving Baghdad into an increasingly difficult balancing action between his main allies in Washington and Tehran.
“With the Turkmen agreement) Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Karim Reuters,” With the Turkmen agreement) can trigger sanctions on Iraqi banks and financial institutions, so the contract has been suspended at the moment. ” He said.
The US Treasury refrained from commenting, but a US source, who knows the issue, said that the Trump administration would not approve of the arrangements that could benefit Iran, even though Iraq has been working on energy needs.
The Iranian government, the Ministry of Petroleum, NIGC and the Turkmen Foreign Ministry did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comments.
Iraq’s trust in Iranian gas
Iraq has been relying on the import of gas and power from Iran for the last ten years. He said Iranian gas covers about one -third of Iraq’s energy production and that gas imports reached 9.5 in 2024.
“If we lose the gas of Iran, we will encounter a serious problem in electricity generation.” He said.
Although Iraq is the second largest oil manufacturer of OPEC, it burns most of the gas produced by oil due to lack of infrastructure to capture and process and process and process.
According to IEA, the country released only 11 bcm gas in 2023, which could be used for power or industrial needs. Iraq’s gas needs are seasonally changing, demand increased in summer and approximately 45 million cubic meters (MCM) per day, otherwise 10-20 mcm per day.
Sanctions Turkmen agreement
In March, the Trump administration has ended from a sanction that allows Iraq to pay Iranian power and reduce imports since 2018.
The lack of gas resources from Iran has led to approximately 3,000 megawatt energy production since the end of the waves and the most intense summer demand – Iraq’s more than 28,000 megawatts total capacity will affect approximately 2.5 million houses according to Iraqi electric officials.
Baghdad hoped to diversify his supply and to avoid the risk of violating sanctions with the Turkmen agreement, he said.
Unable to secure this agreement, Iraq may endanger Baghdad’s ability to maintain gas plants during the most intense summer request, and Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity warned the Iraqi Trade Bank (TBI) in August three months before a nationwide darkening.
Qatar diversification through LNG
When the Turkmen route is blocked, Iraq explores alternatives to attach the gap of power needs, including building infrastructure to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar.
Hamza Abdul Baqi, the President of the Southern Gas Company of the state, said that in March he would rent a LNG terminal floating to Reuters to address Iraq’s Qatar and Oman gas. The government said it was assigned to the Ministry of Oil by finding alternatives to Iranian gas if the US decided to restrict it.
The country has also signed agreements with global oil main branches such as Totalenenergies, BP and Chevron in the last two years to accelerate gas projects.
French oil major Totalenenergies, this week, Iraq’s oil, gas and power production aimed at increasing the production of a 27 billion dollar project, Iraq, Ratawi Field, said the second development phase in Ratawi Field.
Britain’s BP said that in March, Iraq received the final government approval for the redevelopment of giant Kirkuk oil fields and received the first plan to produce 3 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
“We are expanding our electric power plants with gas fuel.” He said. “We will need more gas and more resources.”
(Reporting by Maha El Dahan in Dubai and Muhar Nazeh in Baghdad by Ahmed Rasheed and Maer Nazeh in Baghdad, Washington in Andrea Shallal and Marat Gurt in Ashgabat;
