ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity said Tuesday that several power stations across the country have stopped working after a sharp drop in natural gas imports from Iran.

The announcement comes as summer temperatures soar above 50°C in some provinces, placing pressure on Iraq's power grid as energy demands peak.

Saad Freih, director of the ministry’s Fuel Directorate, said the amount of imported gas from Iran dropped to around 25 million cubic meters per day, down from the 55 million cubic meters that Iraq is contracted to receive.

In a statement, the ministry said it is using all available technical and human resources to keep the electricity supply stable and provide as many hours of power as possible to citizens.

The ministry said the sudden cut led to the shutdown of several gas-powered plants, causing a loss of about 3,800 megawatts from the national grid, adding that it is working directly with the Ministry of Oil to supply more fuel and make up for part of the shortfall.

Iranian gas supplies normally account for between 30 and 40 percent of Iraq’s energy needs, with Baghdad having come under heavy pressure from the US to diversify its gas imports. Iraq has been exempted from US sanctions on Iranian gas exports on account of its reliance on its neighbor to sustain the national grid and ongoing struggles in providing electricity to its populace.

In February, the head of the Iraqi parliamentary finance committee, Atwan al-Atwani, said that stopping Iranian gas imports threatens to collapse Iraq’s electricity system.

Iraq's electricity ministry spokesperson, Ahmed Moussa, told The New Region in March that “the Iraqi government is also working on diversifying gas import sources after signing a contract with Turkmenistan, as well as stopping gas flaring in Iraqi fields so that this gas can become the main fuel for power stations in the coming years.” 

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in late May signed two agreements with two American firms to develop certain oil and gas fields in the Region, which combined for a total value of around 110 billion US dollars. The agreements were rejected by Iraq's oil ministry, which reportedly filed a lawsuit against the agreements in Baghdad’s Karkh Commercial Court.

The Kurdistan Region's deals ensured provisions to alleviate ongoing Iraqi gas shortages and help break its reliance on Iranian gas, both Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani and the US Department of State stated, adding that the deals would prove beneficial to all parts of Iraq.