Summer crisis looms as wartime disruptions hit Iraq’s power sector

Iraq's electricity grid has survived a drop in domestic gas feedstock by employing backup measures that are unlikely to meet the challenges of summertime demand spikes.

Workers from Iraq's State Company for Oil Projects install a pipeline to help transport gas from the Nahr Bin Omar field to the Basra Gas Company's NGL processing plant at North Rumaila in April 2026. (Photo credit: SCOP)

Energy

Iran reversal on Strait of Hormuz threatens Iraq’s nascent export restart

Iranian forces blocked a tanker carrying Iraqi crude, dampening hopes for a durable resumption of Iraq's southern exports.

Politics

Ali al-Zaidi nominated for Iraqi premiership

The compromise candidate emerged as a constitutional deadline was expiring, breaking a deadlock among Iraq's Shia Islamist power brokers.

Security

Drone strikes signal escalating threat to Iraqi oil sector

A barrage of attacks hit five oil sites in southern Iraq on a single day.

Interviews

Q&A: Bassim Mohammed Khudair, Deputy Oil Minister for Upstream

Iraq's top upstream oil official confirms that production, curtailed by war, is ready to surge back online — but only once ships can reliably resume Basra Gulf export loadings.