Iranian Minister of Electricity visits Baghdad

Shafaq News/ the Iranian Minister of Energy announced on Tuesday, that the work of Iranian-Iraqi Supreme Joint Committee will be reactivated next month.

Iran's Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian said, during his visit to Baghdad heading a high-ranking delegation " after 6 years of  The Supreme Joint Committee for Economic and Trade Cooperation between the two countries will resume its activities during the coming year after a six-year hiatus."

In a joint press conference with the Iraqi Minister of Trade, Alaa Ahmad al-Jubouri, Ardakanian explained that Tehran will host in the coming weeks the meetings of this committee stressing that constructive discussions will take place between the two parties.

For his part, the Iraqi Minister expressed his pleasure in the Iranian delegation visit and announced that a specialized and high-level delegation would represent Baghdad in these meetings.

During his visit, Ardakanian intends to hold meetings with his Iraqi counterpart and a number of senior officials to discuss the bilateral cooperation as well as issues related to energy and electricity, including Iraq's unpaid bills.

Earlier, Iran has reduced gas exports to Iraq to five million cubic meters from 50 million cubic meters two weeks ago citing unpaid bills, a ministry spokesperson said.

It also officially informed Iraq’s electricity ministry on Sunday that it plans to cut shipments further to three million cubic meters, the spokesperson said.

Iraq has lost around 6,550 megawatts of electricity, spokesman Ahmed Moussa said.

Iraq’s daily consumption during peak hours of winter reaches around 19,000 megawatts while the country generates around 11,000 megawatts, replying on imports to fill the gap, he said.