On Wednesday, the Iraqi Ministry of Oil made the announcement that 13 preliminary agreements to develop 13 oil and gas exploration blocks and fields had been signed.
The agreements are a part of the additional fifth and sixth licensing rounds that the Iraqi government started to increase the country’s oil and gas production, which is what Iraq needs to run its power plants.
According to Iraqi Oil Minister Hayan Abdul-Ghani, the agreements are anticipated to increase the country’s production of crude oil by 750,000 barrels per day and gas by 850,000 cubic feet per day. The ministry is eager to increase oil and gas production by maximizing the utilization of available resources.
According to the Iraqi Oil Minister, these additional quantities will be used as fuel to run power plants and, in turn, generate electricity to support Iraq’s energy sector.
According to figures recently disclosed by Ahmed Musa, the Ministry of Electricity’s spokesperson, Iraq currently generates slightly more than 27,000 megawatts of electricity, but it requires 48,000 megawatts to meet its own requirements.
Musa claims that 80 percent of Iraq’s power plants use gas, some of which is imported from Iran under a five-year agreement that provides 50 million cubic meters of gas per day.
Iraq imports a lot of gas from Iran, but the country has recently invested in a lot of projects to start using flared gas and renewable energy to make electricity.
Iraq cannot generate electricity without importing gas from Iran. However, Baghdad finds it difficult to pay for Iranian gas due to US sanctions on Iran.
Every day, Iraq experiences power outages that can last up to ten hours. During the scorching summer, when the temperature exceeds 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), the situation gets even worse.
Midway through March, Ziyad Ali Fadel, the Iraqi Minister of Electricity, made the announcement that an agreement had been made with Siemens Energy to turn flared gas into fuel within six months.
Fadel confirmed that the agreement is a component of the Iraqi government’s efforts to stop the burning of gas and make use of it to generate electricity.
