ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran has resumed the supply of natural gas to Iraq nearly two weeks after it had cut down its exports to the neighboring country by half, following a deal that was signed between the two sides which will see Baghdad paying for Tehran’s gas using its oil until the end of the year. The agreement was signed on Tuesday between Ihsan Yassin al-Awadi, director of the Iraqi prime minister’s office, and Mohammad Kazem Al-e Sadeq, Iran's ambassador to Baghdad, after days of negotiations. “After negotiations with the Iranian side, which have had a delegation here since Saturday, continuous meetings were held which ended on an agreement on a document and the document has been sent to the Council of Ministers. We have made a decision to conduct a like-kind exchange, meaning we will give them crude or black oil in return for Iranian gas,” Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani said in a televised speech on Tuesday. The agreement aims to restore the amount of gas Iran supplies to Iraq back to 45 million cubic meters a day, so that the country can operate its power grid, after it was cut down to 20 million in recent days. Nahro Rawanduzi, deputy head of the Iraqi parliament's oil and gas committee, told Rudaw that, according to the agreement, Iraq will give Iran black oil from its refinery extracts in return for the gas. “Iraq cannot give crude oil to Iran because Tehran is already unable to sell all of its own oil at the moment,” he said. Amanj Harki, a member of the Iraqi parliament’s electricity and energy committee, told Rudaw that the two countries will continue to swap the assets up until the end of 2023, adding that, according to the agreement, Iran will utilize the oil for local use. Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) receives over 60 thousand tons of black oil from the refineries on a daily basis, ten thousand of which is which is used locally while the rest is given to the highest bidding companies who will export them. Baghdad has transferred $10 billion to an account at the Trade Bank of Iraq (TBI) to pay off its gas debts to Tehran. However, Iran has been unable to access the funds due to US sanctions, leading to the recent limiting of its gas supply to the neighboring country. Iraq currently produces between 20 thousand to 21 thousand megawatts of power, while it needs an estimated 34 thousand to 35 thousand megawatts to bring an end to the electricity crisis, especially during summertime. Despite its large oil and gas reserves, Iraq suffers from chronic electricity shortages, especially felt when summer temperatures reach over 50 degrees Celsius. The country has for years been dependent on gas imports from Iran to run its power generation plants.
