Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi held an emergency meeting in Baghdad on Sunday with the ministers of oil, finance and electricity and other officials, to discuss the electricity crisis the country.

The current crisis iscaused by an increased pressure on the nationalgridas a result of the severe cold weather, and the shortfall of imported gas from Iran.

The Prime Minister said during the meeting that previous governments did not diversify sources of imported gas and relied on a single source, which leads to a deterioration in the generation of electricity in the event of a shortfall or a stoppage in gas imports.

The Prime Minister underscored that the current government sought to sign several major contracts to invest Iraqi gas production from in several oil fields.

During the meeting, the Prime Minister directed the Ministry of Oil to take measures to compensate the shortfall in energy production, including:

• Increasing the supply of kerosene to owners of private generators in areas that experience power outages.
• Ensuring the distribution tocitizensofpparaffin and the provision of additional quantities to be made available for purchase.
• Providing liquid fuel for power plants to compensate for the shortfall in imported gas.