The Iraqi government issues decisions related to gas, water, and development projects.

The Iraqi government issues decisions related to gas, water, and development projects.

2025-09-23 09:12

Shafaq News – Baghdad
On Tuesday, the Iraqi government issued a series of decisions related to development projects, including facilitating the gas supply project to the Bismayah plant and approving the floating platform project for importing liquefied natural gas. Exemptions were also granted to address the water crisis in Basra, along with other decisions regarding stalled and suspended projects.

This came during Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani’s chairing of the 38th regular cabinet session, during which the country’s general situation was discussed, a number of economic and service issues were reviewed, and topics on the agenda were monitored and decisions were made regarding them.

According to a statement by Al-Sudani’s office received by Shafaq News Agency, the latter directed, with regard to the project to deliver gas to the Bismayah power station, to facilitate the implementation and passage of the gas pipeline project (42) nodes to the station, to cross the Rusafa silo affiliated with the Ministry of Trade, without rent or any financial obligation.

The statement added, regarding the floating platform project for importing liquefied gas, the Council approved the recommendations for studying the offers submitted by companies to implement the project, according to what was stated in Cabinet Resolutions (53 and 108) of 2025 and Ministerial Council for Energy Resolution (55) of 2025, and considered it a strategic development project based on Cabinet Resolution (23700 of 2023) and Legislative Resolution (767).

According to the statement, in the oil file, approval was given to approve the recommendations of the audit committee for auditing the participation, investment, and joint operation contracts for the (oil) docks affiliated with the Ministry of Transport/General Company for Iraqi Ports, to evaluate them and ensure their compliance with the terms of the contracts, achieve technical and economic feasibility, and identify violations.

He continued, that the Council voted, with the aim of strengthening the infrastructure of the water sector, to exempt the purchasing committees of the Ministry of Oil/Oil Pipelines Company/Southern Operations Authority from the provisions of the instructions to facilitate the implementation of the Federal General Budget Law (13 of 2023) and from Cabinet Resolution (24600 of 2024) to address the water crisis in Basra Governorate until it ends.

He added that the Council also voted to extinguish the amounts owed by the Baghdad Municipality, the municipalities in the governorates, and the roads and bridges departments to the Ministry of Electricity, as a result of supplying energy for public street lighting purposes, provided that these departments will pay the electricity costs supplied for lighting purposes, starting July 1, 2026.

Regarding the follow-up of stalled and suspended projects, the Cabinet approved the following:

– Increase the reserve amount and the total cost of the project contracting component (rehabilitation of the first lane and construction of a second lane for the Basra-Faw Road).

– Including two components (design review and supervision of the implementation of the Samarra City Infrastructure Project (consulting firm), and changing the name of the main project to (Samarra City Infrastructure (design and implementation)).

– Including the component (equipping spiral tomography devices for Al-Alam, Amerli, Al-Dhuluiya, and Makishifa hospitals in Salah Al-Din Governorate) among the main project components, equipping and installing sonar devices, consulting clinics, emergency rooms, a dialysis unit, and other devices, and increasing the total cost of the project.

– Increase the reserve amount and the total cost of the project (construction of the Nineveh Central Stadium with an indoor sports hall on the right side of Mosul).

– Increase the total cost of the project (construction of closed sports halls (iron structures) with a capacity of (500) spectators in the districts of Baghdad and the governorates, number (6).

Increasing the reserve amount and the supervision and monitoring amount for the component (establishing a closed sports hall with a capacity of (500) spectators in Anbar/Ramadi).

– Increase the amount of supervision and monitoring for the two components (establishing two closed sports halls with a capacity of (500) spectators in Salah al-Din/Balad and Dujail).

– Increase the supervision and monitoring amount for the component (establishing a closed sports hall with a capacity of (500) spectators in Wasit/Al-Numaniyah).

Regarding the Najaf-Karbala Metro Project, the Council voted to amend Cabinet Resolution No. (24306 of 2024) to authorize the National Investment Commission to contract with the Malaysian HSS Consulting Company and the Emirati CHSS Company (participation), and to grant investment licenses and sign investment contracts to investment companies or the winning coalition in accordance with applicable laws and instructions. The consulting contract fees shall be (0.6%) for the evaluation and audit phases and (1.2%) for the supervision phase, on behalf of the companies or coalition that wins the investment opportunity.

Regarding energy project contracts, the Council authorized the Minister of Finance or her authorized representative to sign the loan agreement for the combined cycle project for the Sadr Gas Power Plant (2,1), based on the Federal General Budget Law (13 of 2023).

In the same context, the Council of Ministers authorized the Minister of Finance or whoever she authorizes to sign a loan agreement to finance the project to equip and implement secondary stations (132 KV) for the second phase of the Iraqi-Jordanian interconnection/ with General Electric International Inc.; based on the Federal General Budget Law (13 of 2023) which included the principles of cooperation on energy in Iraq with the company to finance the project.

The Minister of Finance or her designated representative was also authorized to negotiate and initial the draft agreement to avoid double taxation and prevent tax evasion on income and capital between Iraq and Jordan.

The Council approved the recommendations of the minutes of the consultative meeting on the draft agreement regulating the transport of goods by land between Arab countries in all aspects, and the level of its conflict with the development road project, taking into account the observations recorded in the minutes of the meeting.

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