Oil & Gas Iraq to stop taking Iranian gas by 2028 By Nadim Kawach February 7, 2025, 11:07 AM Monica Wells/Alamy Live News via Reuters Mohammed Al-Sudani, the Iraqi prime minister, says he is under no pressure to end Iran's supply of gas Iran should supply 50m m³ a day Supply came to a halt last year Iraq to rely on other neighbours Iraq will phase out gas imports from neighboring Iran within three years because of persistent supply disruptions. It will instead increasingly rely on more domestic production to fuel its power stations, and electricity from other neighbours including Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Mohammed Al-Sudani, the Iraqi prime minister, said Iraq’s decision to end Iranian imports in 2028 is not based on any external political pressure. “We are not under pressure from any country,” he said in statements carried by Aliqtisad News. Iran has long been subject to US and EU sanctions since the 1979 Iranian Islamic revolution. Iraq, whose power infrastructure has been devastated by decades of war and sanctions, would get additional electricity supplies from Saudi Arabia, other Gulf Arab states and Jordan through grid connections, some of which have already been made. Over the last six months, Iraq has awarded contracts to France’s TotalEnergies and other international companies to develop its domestic gas resources, estimated at nearly 3.5 trillion cubic metres. The $27 billion deal with TotalEnergies will add nearly 600 million cubic feet per day of gas to Iraq’s national production and help end the longstanding practice of flaring or burning off gas as a by-product of oil production. Iraq and Iran have an agreement for Iran to supply Iraq with 50 million cubic metres per day of natural gas to help run Iraqi power facilities. But supplies have fluctuated sharply over the last over 12 months, coming to a halt in December because of a sharp increase in Iran’s domestic demand and maintenance work on some of its gas facilities. Iraqi officials said last month that Iran gas supply disruptions, coupled with maintenance work on some of Iraq’s power stations, cut national power generation by nearly 9,000 megawatts. ‘It’s costing huge sums’ – Iraq may stop buying Iranian gas Iraq turns to Turkmenistan to plug Iranian gas gap Neighbours to supply Iraq with 3GW of electricity this summer To diversify its sources of gas imports, Iraq, which is Opec’s second-largest oil producer, signed an initial agreement with Turkmenistan in 2023 to import nearly 20 million cubic metres per day of gas, via Iranian pipelines, since Iraq and Turkmenistan do not share a border. “Iraq has taken a sound decision to import gas from Turkmenistan to tackle its electricity shortage crisis,” said Walid Khaddouri, former information chief of the Kuwaiti-based Arab Energy Organization. “(The power shortage) is one of the worst crises faced by Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion, although it has pumped at least $41 billion to develop its power sector.”
