POWERING IRAQ: CHALLENGES FACING THE ELECTRICITY SECTOR IN IRAQ

On February 21, 2020, Iraq recorded its first case of the novel coronavirus. Five months later, total recorded cases are 129 000 at the time of writing, and daily reported deaths almost 100. The crisis has battered the country’s economic development plans, and put an indefinite question mark over the realisation of a massive US$ 15 billion electricity infrastructure upgrade roadmap announced by former Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mehdi in April last year. Simultaneously, global energy markets continue to struggle ever since the oil market collapsed between March and April, briefly plunging oil price will drop to low single-digit.Iraq’s hydrocarbon revenues have, as a result, fallen to their lowest since the early years after the 2003 US invasion.

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