Iraq received a 120-day waiver from the United States this week to continue importing gas and electricity from neighboring Iran. Iraq has received numerous waivers since the US re-imposed sanctions on Iran in 2018 (MEES, 21 June) – a tacit acknowledgment from Washington that Iranian imports are essential for Iraq’s under-supplied and underperforming power sector.
Iraqi statistics imply that Iranian imports supply around 750mn cfd of the total 2.1mn cfd it burns in power plants, while Iranian power supplies of up to 1.2GW to the Iraqi grid helped Baghdad achieve a record 18GW of power supply this summer (MEES, 19 July). (CONTINUED - 450 WORDS)
