Shafaq News/ the Iraqi Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar confirmed that the future of energy in Iraq is "promising" despite the economic and health challenges and the fluctuations of the global oil market.

On Monday, the Energy Ministerial Council held the "Ministerial Forum on Future Energy Prospects." The Forum was attended by the Ministers of Oil, Finance, and Water Resources and advisors and general managers.

Abdul-Jabbar pointed out the "importance of establishing the energy industry, which includes all sectors." He said that "Iraq is proceeding to implement serious and important plans aimed at increasing production and investment of energy to achieve sustainable economic development, in addition to implementing Iraq's commitments regarding reducing emissions and global warming."

He added, "Iraq needs, in the coming years, to increase the production of electrical energy due to the population growth rate," noting "the importance of securing and monitoring the financial budgets for the implementation of energy production projects to cover the need and local consumption."

"Iraq has made remarkable progress regarding gas investment, and there are discussions and negotiations with international companies to develop gas fields in addition to the national effort," He said.

"Iraq has concluded many electricity production contracts to invest in solar energy."

For his part, Finance Minister Ali Abdul-Amir Allawi said, "there are economic challenges Iraq is going through, due to the oil prices," noting that Iraq depends in its federal budgets on the revenues achieved from crude oil sales."

The Minister of Water Resources Mahdi Rashid touched on Iraq's decisions to benefit from water energy in producing electricity through hydroelectric projects.

The former Oil Minister Thamer Al-Ghadban presented a paper on the prospects of the Iraqi energy sector. He referred to the priorities for developing the gas sector, stressing the importance of extending the discovered gas fields and accelerating their development and production.

While the Ministry of Oil for Energy Affairs advisor, Abdul Baqi Khalaf, stressed talked about a road map towards sustainable energy transformation and the need to adopt renewable energy, represented by solar energy, wind energy, and nuclear energy."

He pointed out that "Iraq has many commitments to the international community through its pledges made in climate and energy-related conferences, so "it is necessary to implement projects that would reduce gas emissions and preserve the environment."

For his part, the advisor to the Minister of Electricity, Abdul Hamza Hadi, presented a paper on the prospects and challenges of the power sector in Iraq and the importance of implementing projects to increase production and community awareness.