The increase in oil prices will only cover the budget deficit, expert says

Shafaq News/ Oil expert Hamza Al-Jawahiri said that Iraq will not benefit from the rise in crude prices due to the fiscal deficit in the federal budget.

Al-Jawahiri said in an interview with Shafaq News Agency, "The rise in oil prices will reflect positively on Iraq, which will not benefit from this rise in the current year because it will go to fill the deficit in the 2021 budget."

"Maybe funds will be available next year for sustainable development."

Regarding clean energy and its competition with fossil fuels, Al-Jawahiri noted that clean energy, no matter how developed, will not compete with oil, coal, and gas in energy production, and therefore Iraq will remain for decades an oil producer, since the costs of clean developmental energy are high, and its technology is not developed enough to produce low-cost energy products.

"Oil is an important source and cannot be abandoned so easily, as it is a major source of energy production and petrochemicals. Its importance is constantly increasing, and the demand for it is increasing annually by three million barrels, "thus, Iraq will keep on producing and selling oil at good prices."

Al-Jawahiri concluded, "coal is still competing and playing an important role in energy production, although many spoke in 1910 that it would disappear after the emergence of oil and gas. However, it still occupies a position in energy production and comes in second place after oil."