Iraq's MoE attributes power outages to Iranian gas and electricity supply cuts

Shafaq News/ Iraqi national power grid has lost 7,500 Megawatts due to the Iranian gas and electricity supply cuts, Iraq's Ministry of Electricity (MoE) said in a statement on Saturday.

The Ministry said Iran downscaled the gas supply to Iraqi gas-operated power plants to 8.5 million cubic meters from 50.

"Iraq lost 1,100 Megawatts after shutting down the Iranian power transmission lines," the statement said.

"Today, Saturday, gas production in al-Zubair fields, west Qurna/1, was reduced by 50% due to bad weather," it added, "Consequently, the lost capacity due to gas shortage amounted to 6,500 Megawatts."

Added up to the lost 1,100 Megawatts that Iraq draws from Iran, power supply hours have been drastically reduced.

Iraq is expected to diversify its power suppliers, as a power link to Gulf Arab states was expected to start operating in the summer of 2020, with a capacity to supply about 500 megawatts.

According to officials in the Ministry of Electricity, damage caused by Islamic State had cut domestic capacity by about 4.5 Gigawatts.