US Extends 120-day Waiver for Iraq
The US has extended waivers for Iraq, allowing it to continue importing Iranian gas and electricity for another 120 days. The last waiver, issued on June 15, expired the following day – October 15.
This is the fifth US waiver for Iraq since November 2018 – one for 45 days, two for 90 days and two for 120 days – when Washington started imposing oil-related sanctions on Iran.
The State Department says the short-term waivers are issued to give time for Iraq to develop its resources and become independent from Iranian energy.
According to official documents, prepared by Iranian energy and oil ministries and seen by NGW, the country exported 13.1mn m3/d (4.82bn m3/yr) gas and 5 TWh electricity to Iran during last fiscal year, ended March 20.
Iran has reduced electricity deliveries to Iraq 26% year-on-year, but its gas deliveries have gone up by 138%.
Iran stopped releasing new statistics, but the latest updated official reports show that the country increased gas exports to Iraq to 16mn m3/d during March 21-May 22, but its electricity export declined 20% year-on-year to 1.1 TWh during the mentioned period.
Iraq has signed two contracts to import 50mn m3/d Iranian gas, but it seems Baghdad is purchasing one-third of this volume.