IEEJ : June 2011

Country Report
IRAQ

1-Current Energy policy and measuresin Iraq
 Iraq is located in west of Asia and its 450000

square kilometers area, and about 31 million
population, Iraq was the world’s 12th largest oil
producer in 2009, and has the world’s fourthlargest proven petroleum reserves after Saudi
Arabia, Canada and Iran.

Just a fraction of Iraq’s known fields are in development,
and Iraq may be one of the few places left where vast
reserves, proven and unknown, have barely been exploited.
Iraq’s energy sector is heavily based upon oil, withapproximately 94 percent of its energy needs met withpetroleum.
The economy of Iraq is petroleum-based; roughly 95% ofbudget revenues and 98% of export earnings come from theoil industry.

Iraq has begun an ambitious development program todevelop its oil fields and to increase its oil production.
Passage of the proposed Hydrocarbons Law, which would
provide a legal framework for investment in the hydrocarbon
sector, remains a main policy objective. Despite the absenceof the Hydrocarbons Law, the Iraqi Ministry of Oil signed 12
long-term contracts between November 2008 and May 2010
with international oil companies to develop 14 oil fields.
When these fields are fully developed, they will increase total
Iraqi production capacity to almost 12 million bbl/d, or 9.5
million bbl/d above current production levels. The contracts
call for Iraq to reach this production target by 2017.

Iraq’s proven natural gas reserves are 112 trillion cubic feet(Tcf) Probable Iraqi reserves have been estimated at 275-300
Tcf.
Iraq’s proven gas reserves are the tenth largest in the world,
and two-thirds of resources are associated with oil fields Just
under 20 percent of known gas reserves are non-associated.
The majority of non-associated reserves are concentrated inseveral fields in the North.
The Ministry of Oil reported that approximately 60 percent ofassociated natural gas production is flared due to a lack ofsufficient infrastructure to utilize it for consumption andexport. The flaring of the natural gas has meant lost Liquefied
Petroleum Gas (LPG) output of an estimated 4,000 tons perday, while at the same time there are LPG shortages requiring
imports of 1,200 tons per day.

Iraq’s natural gas sector is believed to contain significant
untapped resources which the Government of Iraq would liketo develop for domestic consumption and export.
Plans to export natural gas remain controversial due to theamount of idle and sub-optimally-fired electricity generation
capacity in Iraq - much a result of a lack of adequate gas
feedstock.
Iraq has planned an upstream bidding round in late 2010 for
three non-associated natural gas fields with combined reservesof over 7.5 Tcf. This will be the third hydrocarbon bidding round
conducted by Iraq, following two earlier rounds that were held
to develop Iraq’s oil fields. Iraq has committed to purchasing
100 percent of the gas.

 The points below represent the current energy

policy, as well as mentioned above which ithappened as a result of the bad policy of the pastregime, because of ongoing wars and presented toan economic embargo and a comprehensive
science and is still trying to hinder the growth andstability till now:-

1
Sale the different types of energy
to the citizens at low prices.

2
Weak consumption rationalization
policy.

3 Very low Reliance on renewableenergy, particularly the use of solar
energy in heating and water heating.

4
Total losses in electrical energy are very
high ”more than 50%”.

6

weak in use of thermal
insulation in buildings
due the absence of laws
which encouraging theconsumer to use it andorganize this matter.

6

Low level of environmental
awareness and lack of carbon
emissions reduction.

7
Inefficient economic management of
the production and consumption ofelectricity and management ofelectrical systems and weak
coordination between relevantenergy ministries (oil andelectricity).

From the above points we note theweaknesses of the energy policy of thecountry in the most items which wasmentioned above and that need to be acorrect policy urgently and applied toredress the imbalance for the purpose ofenergy saving and end the suffering of thecitizen as a result of a shortage in theelectrical energy supply and volatility for oil
products, to improve services and develop
agriculture, industry, trade and security
reality a result, reduce carbon emissions toimprove the environment....

We include below a table that
contains Information about
the reality of electricity and oilin Iraq

2009

2010

1

Oil production barrels/day

2.4 million
barrels/day

2.5 million
barrels/day2

Oil Consumption barrels/day

0.5 million
barrels/day

0.6 million
barrels/day

3

Associated Natural Gas Production million
cubic feet /day

1444

1562

4

Associated Natural Gas Utilization million
cubic feet /day

746

705

5

Associated Natural Gas Flared million cubicfeet /day

698

857

8

Electrical Power Demand MW

12000

14000

9

Electrical Power Generation MW

5899

681810Electrical Power (peak) MW

6204

7575

11

Electrical Power Installed Capacity MW7575

7920

2- Energy demand and supply (statistics)
2009

2010

1

Electrical Energy Demand mega watthour

105120000

122640000

2Electric Energy Supply mega watt hour

51837638

55603946

3Electric Energy Sales mega watt hour

25857349

27443762

4

Percentage Losses

50%

50.6%

3
Major difficulties and bottlenecks
currently faced in formulatingenergy policies in Iraq

AElectrical energy demand much
more than supplyB
The relationship between the Ministry of Oiland Ministry of Electricity as dependent oneach other for that product, the expansion in
one means to increase consumption at theother and vice versa.

CA culture of excessive energy
consumption among thecitizens.

DThe absence of a national Iraqi law
organize investment in energy
sector.

E

The lack of an outlet for significant
increases in crude oil production. BothIraqi refining and export infrastructure
are currently bottlenecks, and need
to be upgraded to process much more
crude oil.

FThe supply & transportation of thefuel to the newly installed power
plants over the map of Iraq
(pipelines & trucks )GThe national grid & distribution
networks needs to update &increase the capacity of its
components to face the increasing
rates in the energy demands.

H
Shortage & quality of the Iraq rivers
water as they emerges mainly fromthe neighboring countries ( north ,south & west ) as they built many
dams to store the water for
irrigation & electrical power
generation which have a negative
effects on the power plants & thepower generation.

IThe lack of experience in (operation& maintenance) of the workers inthe energy sector, particularly thepower plants due to the expansionof the newly installed plants & thelack of the condensed training for
them.

J
Iraqi refineries have antiquated infrastructure
and only half run at utilization rates of 50
percent or more. Despite improvements inrecent years, the sector has not been able tomeet domestic demand of about 600,000
bbl/d, and the refineries produce too muchheavy fuel oil and not enough other refinedproducts. As a result, Iraq relies on imports
for 30 percent of its gasoline and 17 percent of
its LPG.

4Subjects I would like to study
in the order of priority andthe reason

A
The use of thermal insulation to reduce theenergy consumption.

B
Increase the electrical energy tariff to reachthe real cost so create good behavior forenergy consumption and reduce theshortage of electric power production

C
Depend on solar power for heating & water
heating to compensate the shortage inelectric power.

DReduction the losses & improve the power
factor because the losses in Iraqi electric
network exceed 50% and there is ability toreduce it to 10%.

EThe used of nuclear energy in generation ofelectric power to reduce the reliance on
fossil fuel and compensate the shortage inelectric power.

FThe use of natural gas to meet the domestic
needs from thermal energy.

GA plan for environmental improvement andreduction of carbonic emission

Thanks for your attention

Ghulfus Ahmed Ali
ghulfus_eng@yahoo.com

Thank you for your attention

Contact : report@tky.ieej.or.jp