![TotalEnergies has signed a deal with Iraq to fix its dilapidated electricity grid [Getty]](/sites/default/files/styles/image_156x88/public/2023-04/GettyImages-1243698965.jpg?h=199d8c1f&itok=DyKalA2U)
TotalEnergies has announced that it reached a long-delayed $10 billion agreement with Iraq to improve its rundown electricity grid.
The agreement, signed in Baghdad in the presence of Prime Minister Mohamed Shia Al-Sudani and Kurdish premier Masrour Barzani, was to be implemented 'today', a Kurdish regional government official said.
The International Energy Agency said the OPEC+ oil output cuts risk exacerbating a strained market and pushing up oil prices amid inflationary pressures.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said OPEC+'s surprise oil production cut is a 'regrettable action', adding it was too early to assess what the price impact would be.
A suspension in Kurdistan oil exports abroad has halted debt repayments, worrying actors in the semi-autonomous region and Baghdad.
Gas firms from the UK and UAE have placed a billion-dollar bid to purchase half of Israel's NewMed Energy.
The decision to stop shipments of 450,000 barrels per day of crude relates to a case from 2014, when Baghdad claimed Turkey violated a joint agreement by allowing the Kurdistan Regional Government to export oil through a pipeline to Ceyhan port.
Saudi Arabia's position as the key oil supplier to the rising superpower China has been eclipsed by Russia.
The emergency was sparked by an 'oil leak in the west of the country', the state-owned Kuwait Oil Company said in a statement, as video posted by local media showed a gushing pipe surrounded by a large slick of oil.
The proposed deal, which Iraq hopes will revive foreign investment in the country, was signed in 2021 for TotalEnergies to build four oil, gas and renewables projects with an initial investment of $10 billion in southern Iraq over 25 years.