RoydadNaft –  Iran has fully suspended natural gas supplies to Iraq for a seven-day period to carry out urgent maintenance and repairs on export pipelines, Iraq’s Electricity Ministry announced on Thursday.

Ahmad Mousa al-Abadi, spokesperson for the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity, confirmed that Iran officially notified Baghdad of the complete cutoff, which began three days ago and is expected to last four more days before flows resume.

Despite the sudden loss of Iranian gas — which powers roughly one-third of Iraq’s electricity generation — al-Abadi stressed that the situation remains under control. “We are coordinating with the Oil Ministry and using alternative fuels so that power plants continue operating without interruption,” he said. He added that the ministry had already prepared for peak winter demand through ongoing maintenance and expansion of domestic generation capacity.

Under a five-year contract renewed in March 2024, Iran is committed to supplying up to 50 million cubic meters of gas per day to Iraq, though volumes are routinely reduced during Iran’s own peak summer and winter seasons to meet domestic needs.

Iraq requires around 35,000 MW of electricity to meet national demand and remains heavily reliant on Iranian gas imports, making such scheduled and unscheduled disruptions a recurring challenge for the country’s power grid.