Oil ministry is liable for Iraq's poor power sector, MP says

Shafaq News/ The member of the Sadrist parliamentary bloc, Burhan al-Maamouri, on Wednesday said that the Iraqi Ministry of Oil bears a significant portion of the responsibility for the failure of the electricity sector in the country.

Earlier today, Iraq's legislative body hosted the Minister of Electricity and senior officeholders in the ministry to ponder solutions to the everlasting power dilemma that exacerbates during summer.

Iraq is a leading producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), but its national grid has been worn down by years of conflict and poor maintenance.

Critics say an inefficient tariff system fails to incentivize power conservation, and there has been little investment in renewable energy so far.

"The summoning of the Electricity Minister accounts for multiple variables. Summer is around the corner, and the parliament has proceeded with the legislation of an urgent bill to uphold food security and development," MP al-Maamouri said. 

"The meeting covered the power production, transportation, and distribution, in addition to the population growth in the cities and governorates," he added, "in a part of the discussion, we sought alternatives. Gas investments in Iraq are nearly non-existent. Indeed, the Ministry of Oil bears much of the responsibility since it does not defer bills on investing domestic gas instead of importing."

"In another part, we pondered solutions to the problems of each governorate. We inflict major losses from the incompetent power grids and inefficient tariff system."

"The Minister shed light on the financial and non-financial provisions the Ministry needs to sustain the current," the lawmaker continued, "he also explained that the Ministry has added 4,000 megawatts to the power production capacity."

Power from Iraq's main grid suffers year-round from hours-long cuts each day, but the shortages worsen during the hot summer months when temperatures regularly reach 50 degrees and households rely on air conditioning.

Iraqis blame a government which relies on energy imports from Iran and which they say has failed to develop Iraq's own grid to serve its population. 

Reduced power supplies from Iran and a series of attacks on power lines by militants have compounded the electricity crisis of the war-scarred country.