Senior US official to visit Oman, Baghdad, Irbil

US Assistant Secretary for Energy Resources Geoffrey R. Pyatt is traveling to Amman, Jordan, and Baghdad and Erbil, Iraq, the Department of State said Wednesday. In Amman, Pyatt will meet with Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Dr. Saleh Kharabsheh to discuss Jordan's energy security, renewable energy goals, and green hydrogen potential, the Department of State added in a statement. The Assistant Secretary and the Minister will also discuss electricity interconnections with neighbors, including Iraq, and U.S. company partnerships, it noted. In Baghdad, Assistant Secretary Pyatt will meet with government officials and companies to further critical discussions from Prime Minister Sudan's recent visit to Washington, including Iraq's goal to achieve energy autonomy by 2030 through greater efficiency, renewable energy sources, and the modernization of electricity grids, according to the statement. Pyatt will also meet with companies and government officials to discuss improving the efficiency of natural gas utilization and forging a roadmap to end environmentally harmful methane venting and flaring, in pursuit of commitments made under the Global Methane Pledge, advancing our most urgent shared climate priorities, it stated. He will then travel to Erbil to engage on ways to ensure that Iraq continues to attract foreign investment. He will also meet with senior leaders in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR) to advance opportunities to support Iraq's clean energy transition and will discuss the important role IKR natural gas resources could play in support of Iraq's energy autonomy, it pointed out. In both Erbil and Baghdad, Assistant Secretary Pyatt will discuss resuming Iraq's oil exports via the Iraq-Turkiye Pipeline (ITP) to offset decreases in Russian oil exports to Europe, according to the statement. Source: Kuwait News Agency