Germany’s Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has expressed his support for buying gas and oil from Iraq, with the aim of not depending on «individual suppliers» after the problems derived in the last year from the military offensive launched by Russia over Ukraine.
«We will mobilize many other (suppliers), we will cooperate closely with them,» Scholz said Friday at a press conference in Berlin alongside Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al Sudani. Energy has dominated much of the talks during this visit.
For the German chancellor, Iraq is «a very welcome cooperation partner» and not only for Germany, since, according to Scholz, the imported fuel could subsequently be diverted to other European countries.
Al Sudani, for his part, reaffirmed his government’s «ambitious plans» for further progress in energy. «We have highlighted these opportunities and invited German companies to invest in this sector,» he told the media.
Al Sudani’s coming to power ended a year of political deadlock in a country still grappling with serious political and economic crises. Iraq, the world’s fifth largest oil producer, is one of the world’s most dependent countries on crude oil revenues and since last year has been exporting gas through a liquefied natural gas terminal.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
