Baghdad Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi chaired, today, Sunday, an emergency meeting that included the ministers of oil, finance and electricity and a number of officials, devoted to discussing the electrical energy crisis that the country is currently witnessing, due to the increased loads on the electrical grid as a result of the severe cold wave, and due to the lack of imported gas from the Iranian side.
Al-Kadhimi stressed that the previous governments did not diversify the sources of gas import and adopted one source, which led to a deterioration in the production of electrical energy in the event of a shortage or halt in gas imports, while the current government sought to sign several giant contracts to invest gas in various oil fields for the purpose of developing a final and national solution to this problem over the next few years.
In order to forestall the current situation, the Prime Minister directed the Ministry of Oil to take several measures that would contribute to providing electricity to citizens and compensating for the shortfall in energy production, as Al-Kadhimi directed an increase in the share of private generators of gas oil fuel in areas that witness multiple power outages.
He was directed to follow up on ensuring the distribution of the prescribed quotas for citizens of white oil and the provision of additional quantities at the outlets.
Al-Kadhimi directed the provision of liquid fuel to electric power production plants to compensate for the shortfall in gas imports from the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Source: National Iraqi News Agency