Electricity Woes

Baghdad – Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, while standing by his resigning minister of electricity Karim Wahid, blamed the latter for raising people’s expectations and promising quick solutions to the electricity problems. The truth is, he said, the situation will not improve until the projects to build new power plants and install turbines contracted from GE and Siemens are done within two years. But would they? Maliki is committing the…

Iraq Turns Spotlight on Natural Gas Projects as Shortages Bite

20 March 2008 The Iraqi oil ministry is tendering a contract to build a pipeline linking the Akkas gas field in northwest Iraq to the Syrian border with the aim of starting exports to Syria within a year of contract award, a senior Iraqi official said Wednesday. Akkas was discovered in the late 1990s, and six wells were drilled there by a Syrian contractor before the US-led invasion in 2003….