Iran has resumed exporting natural gas to Iraq at a rate of five million cubic meters per day, the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity announced on Sunday, following a temporary shutdown for maintenance.
Ministry spokesperson Ahmed Mousa said that power generation units at the Bismayah and Al-Mansouriyah stations in Baghdad—both affected by the recent gas shortage—have now returned to service.
This development comes just days after a drone strike hit the Khor Mor gas field in the Al-Sulaymaniyah province, cutting gas flows to power plants in the Kurdistan Region and causing the loss of nearly 80% of the Region’s electricity generation capacity.
Earlier today, the Kurdish Ministry of Electricity confirmed that power had been fully restored across the Region after a four-day disruption triggered by the attack on Khor Mor.
According to Mousa, the restoration of Iranian gas supplies coincided with the completion of repairs at the Khor Mor field and the resumption of its operations. This allowed the national grid to receive around 700 megawatts of electricity purchased from private-sector generation stations in the Kurdistan Region.
Iraq continues to face a severe energy gap, aggravated by U.S. restrictions on importing Iranian gas—an essential component for fueling many of the country’s power plants. Iraq currently imports around 50 million cubic feet of Iranian gas, which accounts for roughly two-thirds of Iran’s gas-generated power supplied to Iraq, according to government spokesperson Basim Al-Awadi.
The most recent U.S. sanctions waiver, granted under former President Joe Biden, expired on March 7 after a 120-day extension.
Iraq’s broader power deficit remains significant. The country needs approximately 50,000 megawatts to meet nationwide demand but produces only about 28,000 megawatts, according to official figures cited by the Eco Iraq Observatory.
