US sanctions blocking Turkmenistan's gas flow via Iran

Iraqi Ministry of Electricity spokesman Ahmad Musa said on Sunday that US sanctions on Iran have restricted Iraq’s access to Iranian electricity supplies as well as to gas supplies from Turkmenistan that were supposed to reach the Arab country via the Iranian pipelines.

Musa told the Iraqi News Agency (INA) that the restrictions had caused Iraq to lose nearly 5 gigawatts (GW) of its electricity generation capacity for this summer, which he said was meant to reach 27 GW.  

He said that Iraq has been unable to compensate Iran for transit fees related to gas supplies from Turkmenistan because of US sanctions, losing an electricity production capacity of 4 GW.

Under a gas swap contract signed last year between Iran, Iraq, and Turkmenistan, the Arab country was supposed to receive up to 20 million cubic meters (mcm) per day of gas via the Iranian pipelines.

Musa said that restrictions on direct electricity imports from Iran had also disrupted 1 GW of Iraq’s power supplies.

Iran supplies up to 50 mcm of natural gas and 1 GW of electricity to Iraq every day.

The United States announced in early March that it had revoked a waiver from its Iran sanctions that allowed Iraq to pay for electricity imports from its eastern neighbor.

That comes as a years-long US waiver for Iraq to import natural gas from Iran is still in place, as the Arab country relies on Iranian gas for 43% of electricity generation in its power plants.

Direct electricity imports from Iran also account for up to 10% of Iraq’s domestic demand for power. /Mehr