Al-Sudani announces the end of the imported gas crisis, the operator of electric power stations / Expanded

Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani announced, this evening, Tuesday, the end of the gas supply crisis that operates electric power stations, after a bilateral agreement with Iran.

Al-Sudani said, according to a statement by his office: “The government has already diagnosed, from its first day, the reasons behind the electricity crisis over the past years, and has put in place immediate, medium and long-term solutions, in addition to a package of measures that will positively affect the levels of electric energy production, along with other measures.” It is in the path of enhancing national energy production, self-sufficiency in gas, and flexibility in meeting the fuel needs needed to operate the stations.

He added: We have adopted the principle of disclosure with our people in everything related to the electricity crisis file, since the first day of the government, and we have identified the reasons behind the electricity crisis that has been going on for years, and we have developed immediate, medium and long-term solutions to end it.

He continued: “From day one, we started with immediate solutions to the electricity crisis, which we expected to occur with the onset of the summer season, and we moved strongly towards maintenance work for all electric power generation units, which we completed before the start of the summer season, unlike what was previously happening where maintenance is carried out at the height of summer.”

The Prime Minister pointed out: “The contract with Siemens to install cooling systems provided energy around 797 megawatts without additional fuel.”

He added: “We rushed to work to complete the unfinished stations, and we opened a station in Salah al-Din that added about 600 megawatts to us, indicating; and we accomplished a great job in removing bottlenecks in the distribution system and completing transformer stations in Baghdad and the provinces.”

Al-Sudani stated, “The quick measures that we have taken have provided us with between 4-5 thousand megawatts of electrical energy, in addition to the actual production that ranges between 20-21 thousand megawatts, and our production of electric energy has reached 26 thousand megawatts thanks to the solutions and procedures that we have taken.” We took it to solve the electricity crisis, without which the problem would have been even greater.”

He stated, “During the past six months, we moved to intermediate solutions, which are the real solution to the electricity crisis and the import of gas approved in power plants. We rushed strongly towards concluding the agreement with Total, and before today we witnessed the signing and implementation of the agreement.”

He explained: “The agreement with Total includes 4 contracts, one of which is related to associated gas investment, which will provide up to 600 million standard cubic feet of gas,” noting: “The signing of the fifth round is one of the most important decisions regarding gas investment within the medium-term plan; and companies of the UAE has started investing in gas fields within the fifth round, and Chinese companies are in the process of starting, and this round will provide us between 550-600 million standard cubic feet.

He went on to say: “We went towards completing the Basra Gas Company project, which opened, a while ago, the first part of which amounted to 200 million standard cubic feet, and before the end of this year, the second part of it will be completed with 200 million standard cubic feet as well.

He pointed out that “these projects will spare us any imported gas within two or three years, and represent real and final solutions to the crisis, by relying on Iraqi gas, which will provide us with what we need to operate electric power stations.”

The Prime Minister pointed out that among the medium and long-term solutions is completing the interconnection with the Gulf Interconnection Authority, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Jordan, which are projects that will provide integration in electricity services and raise electric power.

He continued: We started the connection designs with Saudi Arabia and Jordan, and we are now in the initial contracting phase, and a contract was signed with the Gulf Interconnection Authority after completing surveys and designs, and there was an agreement in 2018 that included a mechanism to provide humanitarian and food materials to the Iranian side in exchange for the price of gas, and it faltered due to procedures of the US Treasury Department and tightening sanctions against Iran.

Source: National Iraqi News Agency