Iran's state gas company said on Monday it had slashed supplies to neighboring Iraq over arrears of more than $6 billion. The Iraqi electricity ministry said the cuts placed Baghdad and other cities at risk of serious power shortages.
An agreement was reached during a meeting between Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian, who visited Baghdad yesterday, and Iraqi counterpart Majid Mahdi to resume normal gas flow rates as of Wednesday evening, spokesman Ahmed Moussa told Reuters.
"Meeting ended with resolving lingering issues and gas flow would be resumed to reach normal rates gradually," he said.
Iran's energy minister also met with Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi and conveyed the Iranian government's pledge to "urgently resume gas pumping which had been slashed recently after technical problems", a statement from the prime minister's office cited Iran's minister as saying without giving details.
It was not clear if a specific deal over arrears had been concluded with Tehran to pay the delayed bills.
But a senior member of the Iran-Iraq chamber of commerce said Tehran had accepted a barter deal and would receive goods as part of the arrears.
"Iran has bought goods for part of Iraq's debt…, which will arrive in the country in the next few days," Hamid Hoseini said.
Iraq said on Dec. 21 it was ready to export 700,000 tons of barley to Iran at a price of $125 per ton as part of payments owed by the Iraqi government to Iran.
An Iraqi trade ministry official said on Tuesday the barley export shipments to Iran, in addition to other goods will be used to pay back part of the delayed gas debts.