Iran, Iraq sign long-term strategic energy contract: Minister

Minister of Energy Ali Akbar Mehrabian said the Islamic Republic has signed a long-term strategic electricity contract with Iraq to provide its neighbor with sustainable energy supplies.

Iran is already a key energy provider to Iraq which faces chronic electricity shortages despite sitting on the world’s fourth largest oil reserves.

“Given that we are facing a surplus of electricity production in the country at many times of the year, we pursue the development of energy diplomacy centered on electricity with neighbors in order to both solve their problems and create a stable flow of income and use the maximum capacity of our electricity network,” media on Wednesday quoted Mehrabian as saying.

The minister mentioned Iran's self-sufficiency in technical knowledge of power plant construction, stating that 1,950 megawatts of power plants have been built by Iranian companies with Iraqi investment.

He added that knowledge-based companies from Iran's private sector are also building 1,700 megawatts of power plants in Iraq.

The signing of long-term strategic contracts in the electricity sector has been one of the focal points of the Iranian government's "dynamic regional diplomacy that has yielded brilliant results for the country," according to the minister.

“In this regard, we prepared the ground for the first long-term cooperation in the electricity sector with Iraq, and signed an important and strategic contract with the country,” he added.

Mehrabian cited international reports, saying that the largest electricity production and distribution capacity among the West Asian countries belongs to Iran.

“Despite the slowdown in the development of the electricity industry in the past years, “Iran is still considered the most powerful electricity country in the region, whose record-breaking increase in power plant capacity this year will continue,” he said.

“Iran's power in the field of electricity is not merely limited to the installed capacity of power plants. Due to the expansion of local knowledge, we are not only one of the few self-sufficient countries in the world in the fields of construction, upgrading, repairs and maintenance of power plant units, but we have significant exports of various types of engineering services in the field of electricity.”

SS