Iran minister: $1.6bn of Iraq’s overdue gas debt received

The Iranian oil minister has announced that Iraq has paid $1.6 billion of its gas debt to the Islamic Republic.

“With active energy diplomacy and after several months of negotiations, hours ago, $1.6 billion of Iraq’s overdue debt for gas exports in the previous years was received,” Javad Owji, said in a tweet late on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity had announced the actual start of the process of paying for the Iranian gas via internal borrowing from the Trade Bank of Iraq.

It said it would settle its debts for 2020 purchases from Iran to avoid a halt in the flow of much-needed gas into the Arab country.

The Iraqi ministry said earlier this month that Iran had reduced five million cubic meters of exported gas, resulting in reduction of hours of electric power supply in the Arab country.

Iraq says it currently needs between 50 and 55 million cubic meters of gas per day.

US sanctions on Iran’s oil and gas have complicated Iraq’s payments for the imports.

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