US companies are willing to invest in Iraq's energy sector: ambassador

Shafaq News/ US companies have expressed interest in energy investments in Iraq, ambassador Alina Romanowski said in a speech he delivered before the second oil and gas forum in Baghdad on Saturday.

The US diplomat shed light on Iraq's success in increasing its power production capacity by 25%, calling for more investments in the field of energy.

Romanowski said that achieving security and facilitating contract and payment procedures will help attract investors to the country and ultimately serve the Iraqi people.

The ambassador said that "diversifying the economy" is crucial for expanding the volume of investments in Iraq, commending the efforts of Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani's cabinet to achieve this quest.

Romanowski said that US companies had shown willingness to contribute to Iraq's energy sector in a bid to "achieve sovereignty and contribute to stability and security".

Iraq is under increasing pressure from the US to wean itself off electricity and gas imports from Iran, which has been subject to US sanctions since 2018.

The US has issued Iraq a series of sanctions waivers to continue importing Iranian energy but has warned the waivers could end if Baghdad does not make serious progress toward finding other fuel and power sources.

In addition to gas supplies, Iraq also relies on Iran for nearly a third of its electricity, though this too has been subject to interruptions.

For instance, when Iran reduced gas supplies from 50 million cubic feet to 8.5 million cubic feet to Iraq because of unpaid bills, widespread electricity shortages struck central and southern Iraq.

Though Baghdad has sought to diversify its electricity supply through overtures to countries such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Jordan, and Kuwait, progress on these fronts is not sufficiently developed.

Earlier this month, Ambassador Romanowski said that the United States is willing to join hands with Iraq to build a "world class" electricity system in the war-scarred country.

"Iraqis deserves a diverse, modern economy with good paying jobs," she tweeted, "to make that a reality, it is essential to build a world class electricity system."

"The US stands ready to partner with Iraq's Minister of Electricity Ziyad Ali Fadhil to undertake this important endeavor," she added.

Nearly two decades after the fall of Saddam Hussein's statues, the Iraqi government still struggles to provide its society with electricity around the clock. The Iraqi electricity sector suffered even before the 2003 invasion, but the last 19 years have seen it weakened even more due to endemic corruption and gross negligence. The plans put forth by the consecutive governments to tackle the lack of electricity have more often proven an easy way for officials to embezzle funds through lucrative contracts than a way to improve the lives of Iraqi citizens. As a result, instead of leveraging its own resources, Iraq has become more reliant on Iran to meet its electricity demands.

Widespread electricity outages are part of daily life in Iraq and affect citizens regardless of class. To compound this issue, the gap between available electricity and state-wide demand is set to widen in the future.

The past five years have already witnessed a growing disparity between electricity supplied by the government and the electricity demanded by the Iraqi people; so far, Iraqi electricity consumption—which grew nearly 30% during this period—has outpaced the government's efforts to meet surging demand.