According to PETRA, power projects in Iraq need about U.S.$20 billion to bring back electricity in the country to the normal situation, Iraqi Electricity Minister Mehsen Allush stated Sunday.
Iraq needs about 18,000 megawatts and plans and programs have been worked out to reach out this target by 2010, Allush told reporters at a news conference on Sunday.
He said an agreement was reached for electricity linkage with Syria, Turkey and Iran which is already linked with Iraq in addition to Kuwait to compensate for electricity shortage, the minister said.
He referred to recent talks during Brussels and the Dead Sea conferences on Iraq's reconstruction efforts. There were talks with Iran and Germany to back electricity projects in Iraq and for the first time Germany will support these projects during the coming two years, Allush said. Iran was committed to offer one billion soft loan to Iraq the largest of which will be allocated to power generation projects, he added.
As for supplying western Iraq with electricity from Jordan and Egypt, Allush said it is a long distance and technically the electric current will be weakened over this distance. However, this remains an option but it needs further studies, he told reporters.
