Iraqi Gas, Electricity Expansion Projects Likely To Face Significant Delays - Think Tank

Iraq's plans to bolster the production of natural gas and invest funds in the overhaul of its power generating fleet will likely face significant delays in the long-term due to budget constraints, the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies said on Wednesday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th July, 2020) Iraq's plans to bolster the production of natural gas and invest funds in the overhaul of its power generating fleet will likely face significant delays in the long-term due to budget constraints, the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies said on Wednesday.

"There are signals that all capital investments the Ministry of Electricity planned for this year have been indefinitely deferred. This puts at risk a slew of much-needed investment in the grid (transmission and distribution losses in the country are some of the biggest in the world) and affects an estimated 7,000 megawatts (MW) of planned generation capacity expansion.

Furthermore, constrained budgets will call into question Iraq's plans to capture and use natural gas," the institute said in a statement.

The lack of capital expenditure will leave the middle Eastern country in a continuing cycle of electricity issues as "outages remain a daily occurrence for most households, as increasing demand for electricity has outpaced any increases in capacity," the think tank underlined.

Iraq's budget this year has greatly suffered from the low oil prices and the OPEC+ oil production quotas, as Baghdad needs to reimburse output cuts to the international energy companies operating in the country.