Iran, Iraq ink electricity contract

Iran signed contracts with Iraq to cooperate in the latter's electricity sector, the official IRNA news agency reported Tuesday. Iraqi Ministry of Electricity has signed a 72-million-U.S. dollar contract with Iranian Sanir company, according to an announcement released Tuesday, quoted by IRNA. Sanir is due to construct two gas-powered units for Dibris power plant in Kirkuk in northeastern Iraq in order to increase the country's electricity capacity by 320 megawatts (MW) within 14 months. Other electricity contracts worth 69.8 million dollars have been signed between the Iraqi ministry and other Iranian companies to double the power generation capacity of Sadr power plant in Baghdad within 12 months, IRNA said without specifying the date and locus of signing the contracts. In November, Majid Salehi, managing director of Iran Power Development Company, said that Tehran and Baghdad have agreed to finish an electricity transfer line connecting Iran's Karkheh dam to al-Emara in Iraq, which will take 1,000 MW of electricity to the Iraqi city every year. The capacity can be further increased to 1,150 MW upon the request of the Iraqi side. According to the local satellite Press TV, Iran had a total annual electricity generation capacity of 63,403 MW by November. Iran currently exchanges electricity with countries including Afghanistan, Armenia, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey and Turkmenistan.