Fuel and gas shortage in Iraq

http://www.aknews.com/en/aknews/2/264735/

Baghdad, Oct.2 (AKnews) - Eight years after the war, Iraq is still not capable of producing enough oil and gas to meet its own demands, according to Secretary for Refinery Affairs in the Oil Ministry, Ahmed al Shammaa.

While Iraq produces 8 million liters of liquid gas per day, it consumes approximately 12 million liters. The situation is even worse as far as oil is concerned: 12 million liters of refined oil are produced in Iraq every day, however another 12 million liters have to be imported from international markets.

Iraq consumes a lot of gas because of a large number of gas power plants. The country is suffering from an ongoing electricity shortage in the country. With temperatures often soaring over 50 degrees Celsius during the summer months, demand for electricity in Iraq during this period is estimated at around 14,000 MW. According to government figures, the energy currently available to Iraq stands at around 9,000 MW.

Energy Minister Hussein al-Shahristani recently promised that Iraq's electricity crisis will end in 2013, when only a few more energy plants were built.

This will most likely increase the gas and oil deficit of the country. Though the Oil Ministry repeatedly announced plans to quintuple the country's oil production from 2.5 million barrels of oil per day (bopd) in 2009 to 12 million bopd in 2016, there would not be enough refineries to process crude oil into usable fuel.

In a move that seemed to be a panic reaction, the federal Oil Ministry stopped its procedure to provide free fuel to owners of generators this weekend. The procedure had started in June in order to increase private energy production and cost $400 million USD (469.3 billion IQD).

Reported by Jaafar al-Wannan

RN/CU/AKnews