Iraq to import fuel from Iran

August 19, 2008

Iran has agreed to ferry 1 million liters of fuel to Iraq to meet domestic needs for its rickety power plants, Iraqi ambassador to Tehran said.

Mohammed al-Sheikh said the deal under which Iran will furnish Iraq with fuel was signed during the recent visit by Deputy Prime Minister Burhem Saleh to Iran.

Saleh led a large delegation to Tehran comprising high-ranking officials among them the ministers of electricity, trade and foreign affairs.

Sheikh said "more measures" were taken to boost bilateral ties. However he declined to say whether other major deals were signed.

Iran has emerged as Iraq’s top trading partner in the five years since the U.S. invasion. Iraqi shops and stores brim with Iranian goods.

Iranian firms are currently the most active in Iraq, implementing projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

In another development, Electricity Minister Kareem Waheed has flown to Moscow to urge Russian firms to start building power plants in Iraq, a statement said.

The country has drawn up plans for the construction of several electricity plants but foreign firms are reluctant to send their engineers and technicians to Iraq due to mounting violence.

Waheed will ask the Russians to rehabilitate major power plants their companies had built in Iraq and also offer them the possibility of building new ones, the statement said.

The Russians are keen to execute such projects and have agreed to sign a multi-billion contract for the construction of several plants capable of producing 6000 megawatts, said the statement by the Electricity Ministry.