ISSUE BRIEF
Iraq’s Energy Security Strategy: A Path to Diversity and Energy Independence DECEMBER 2020
ABBAS KADHIM AND SARA VAKHSHOURI
E
lectricity is a top national security priority for most countries. Thus, access to an uninterrupted flow of low-priced and adequate energy supplies to fuel power generators and sustain the supply of electricity lies at the heart of their energy strategies. On taking office in October 2018, Iraq’s former minister of electricity, Luay al-Khatteeb, described electricity as a “national security priority.” In a similar vein, in his address to the Atlantic Council on February 7, 2020, US Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said that in his upcoming meetings at the Munich Security Conference he planned to emphasize the fact that “energy security is indeed national security.”1 For Iraq, a country depleted by wars, terrorism, and incompetent governance, economic recovery is impossible unless infrastructure is restored to functional levels. Iraq’s electricity sector needs immediate attention.
The Atlantic Council’s Iraq Initiative provides transatlantic and regional policy makers with unique perspectives and analysis on the ongoing challenges and opportunities facing Iraq as the country tries to build an inclusive political system, attract economic investment, and encourage a vibrant civil society.
Iraq’s electricity infrastructure has been neglected since the 1980s. In that decade, Iraqi funds were diverted to the staggering cost of the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88). Early in the 1990s, Iraq’s electricity facilities were bombed by a US-led coalition during the Gulf War (1990-91). Following the war, restoration of these facilities was severely restricted as a consequence of stringent economic sanctions imposed on Iraq by the United Nations Security Council. The sanctions would remain in place until Saddam Hussein’s regime was toppled in a US-led invasion in 2003. Although Iraq’s new political system, which has been in place since 2003, has enjoyed wide international support and the gradual removal of sanctions, the electricity sector has witnessed no real improvement. On July 15, 2020, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi said that although Iraq has spent more than $62 billion on electricity since 2003 adequate supplies are still a challenge due to bad planning and corruption. “The state bought electricity stations that depend on gas and Iraq has no 1
Atlantic Council, “US energy priorities abroad: A conversation with US Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette,” February 7, 2020, video, 40:07, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTN-XzyrY7E.