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Page added on July 22, 2018
Oil-Rich Iraq Can’t Keep the Lights On
Temperatures across southern Iraq are so high in the summer months that birds drop dead from the sky due to heat exhaustion. And tap water runs piping hot.
So when Iraq’s power supply faltered this month as a heat wave ramped up air-conditioning demand, it ignited an angry question: Why can’t one of the world’s top oil producers keep the power on?
Protests have rippled through Iraq’s oil-rich south for over a week as demonstrators railed against the government’s failure to provide basic services like electricity, health care and clean water. They have posed a serious enough risk that authorities have shut down the internet and sent in troops to quell the unrest.
Iraq’s electricity sector is a microcosm of the ills plaguing the country since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Some households receive no more than a few hours of state-provided power a day during peak demand. People who can afford it buy their own generators, or buy from neighborhood generators, when the power goes out.
Among other cities, protests flared again on Friday in the province of Basra, where most of Iraq’s oil is produced.
“Basra is like a camel loaded with gold and fed thorns: it produces 90% of Iraq’s wealth but does not get enough electricity,” said Hamid Hafidh, a protest organizer in the province.
Iraq produces much of the natural gas, gas oil, heavy oil and crude that it burns to create electricity, but most of its oil production is sent abroad as exports, which accounts for the vast majority of its government revenue.
But even if Iraq were to divert some of its oil exports for domestic power generation, Iraq can’t generate the electricity it needs.
Iraqi electricity demand has grown to 23,000 megawatts at peak summer demand, but the country can only produce 15,900 megawatts, according to Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity. Demand will continue to grow by around 7% a year, analysts say.
On top of everything else, the nation still is picking up the pieces after the militant Islamic State destroyed a swath of Iraq’s electrical and oil refining capacity. That degraded a national power system that was falling short before the group began its three-year occupation of the north in 2014. Islamic State inflicted $7 billion of damage on the country’s power system, with eight out of 17 power plants in occupied areas completely destroyed, according to a World Bank assessment.
Iraq has initiated a slew of projects to increase generation capacity, including multibillion-dollar contracts signed with Siemens AG and General Electric Co. , but they have yet to be completed. Attempts to purchase more electricity from nearby nations have been stymied or inconclusive.
Iraq had been purchasing electricity from Iran for several years, but Iran cut the power citing unpaid debt and electricity shortages of its own. Ministry of Electricity spokesman Mosaab al-Modares said Iraq has the money to pay, but can no longer transfer the funds without violating U.S. sanctions on Iran.
The biggest problem, however, isn’t electricity generation, but distribution. As much as 65% of the power supply is consumed by people who illegally tap into the grid or don’t have electricity meters, according to the Ministry of Electricity. Fee collection is also weak. In 2015, its best year to date, the ministry said it collected just 12% of fees.
The government tried in 2015 to collect more fees and stop illegal power consumption, but a popular backlash stalled it. Among the biggest opponents, Mr. Modares said, were private power generator owners, who he says collectively make around $10 billion in annual profits from the government’s failure to provide electricity.
“The situation is completely unsustainable,” said Robert Tollast, an Iraq-focused political risk analyst.
Meanwhile, the lack of electricity continues fuel the cries of protesters complaining about corruption and bad governance.
“It makes no sense that with the huge rise in temperature there is no electricity and the water is so salty that we cannot wash in it because our skin will burn,” said Hussam Hassan, a protester Basra.
—Ghassan Adnan contributed to this article.
10 Comments on "Oil-Rich Iraq Can’t Keep the Lights On"
JuanP on Sun, 22nd Jul 2018 7:45 am
The USA destroyed Iraq and it will never recover.
twocats on Sun, 22nd Jul 2018 8:56 am
“Temperatures across southern Iraq are so high in the summer months that birds drop dead from the sky due to heat exhaustion.” birds need to stop flying near airport jet-wash and heat islands – obviously.
print baby print on Sun, 22nd Jul 2018 8:56 am
I think what we see here is a peak demand at work hahahhahahhahhahahhahahahhahhhhahahhah. Peak demand hahahhahhahha
twocats on Sun, 22nd Jul 2018 8:57 am
“Iraq had been purchasing electricity from Iran for several years, but Iran cut the power citing unpaid debt and electricity shortages of its own. Ministry of Electricity spokesman Mosaab al-Modares said Iraq has the money to pay, but can no longer transfer the funds without violating U.S. sanctions on Iran.”
that’s fun because its true classic US
twocats on Sun, 22nd Jul 2018 9:03 am
dick cheney realized Iraq was the last black hope of empire and industrial civilization after the South China was a bust.
so peak oil was influencing decisions on a global scale back in 1997.
hailmary coincidence – here comes 9/11 2001 and we’ve got ourselves an invasion of the most important exposed resource in the world.
the genocide of the iraqis was just an easy synergy – get the oil to market while also negating any chance that Iraqis themselves would increase consumption vis-a-vis the Export Land Model.
didn’t work perfectly – but worked well enough.
https://tradingeconomics.com/iraq/crude-oil-production
onlooker on Sun, 22nd Jul 2018 10:22 am
“What are they doing with our oil?”
Anonymous US politician haha
GetAVasectomyAndLetTheHumanSpecieDieGracefully on Sun, 22nd Jul 2018 11:55 am
Eventually population has to be reduced. What Arabs have contributed to the world recently to make human life less miserable: nothing.
Let them die and be happy that someone else is doing the dirty work for you.
All the modern knowledge such as medicine, engineering, electrical generation is in the western wold university and companies.
We don’t need Arab. Let them die. We all knew this was coming.
Arab and Black seem happy to talk openly about white genocide. Let them have a taste of their own talk
Anonymouse1 on Sun, 22nd Jul 2018 12:24 pm
The Wall st Urinal, all the nonsense that’s fit to print.
The amerikcunts, are the ones that deliberately targeted and destroyed Iraq’s infrastructure starting in the 1990s.
None of the problems the Urinal mentions in their stupid article existed prior to the uS invasion(s). If the Urinal were a little less orwellian, they would just come out and admit that these were the real goals of the us invasion all along. To permanently cripple Iraq(its infrastructure), and reduce it to failed state status. ‘Oil rich’ Iraq, has been plundered and destroyed as a viable nation-state. So long as ‘its’ oil, is under Jew York, London’s and Tel Avivs control, there is little need to provide things like, electricity and clean water, hospitals etc, for Iraqs citizens.
Mission accomplished.
Two cookers on Mon, 23rd Jul 2018 12:13 pm
Germany and Japan bounced back after being totally destroyed. Iraq is of a different breed. And South Africa is going the way of Zimbabwe without any war at all, much as Venezuela is doing.
Look inside the country itself for the clues as to why infrastructure can’t be built and maintained with local talent. Saudi Arabia has to buy all its talent from the outside. Iraq isn’t really a country though, more like three semi-independent fiefdoms.
Third world forever.
Richard on Tue, 24th Jul 2018 8:57 am
Sad stuff. All that resource, and no power.