Iraq’s first LNG cargo likely to come from Qatar, analysts say

• Baghdad and Doha have close ties
• Oman or Algeria also possible
• Iraq beset by blackouts

Blackout-hit Iraq is to receive its first liquefied natural gas cargo this year, with Qatar expected to be the supplier, according to analysts.

Iraq has not ruled out importing LNG from other countries including Oman and Algeria, but analysts believe Qatar is the most likely given its proximity to Iraq, its massive LNG output and the fact that the two countries maintain good ties.

Last October US company Excelerate Energy signed an agreement with Baghdad for the supply and operation of a large offshore LNG import terminal with a value of about $450 million.

Iraq approved the project after a sharp fall in gas supplies from Iran and the government’s failure to agree a supply deal with Turkmenistan.

An Excelerate floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) will be deployed in Khor Al Zubair in the southern oil hub of Basra. It will supply gas to the province and nearby areas, where several power facilities have been crippled due to lack of gas.

“I know that Iraq is about to start importing LNG to offset the halt of Iranian supplies … I assume Qatar is the most practical supplier,” Walid Khaddouri, an Iraqi energy analyst and former information director at the Arab Energy Organisation, told AGBI.

The FSRU, which will be commissioned in June, will initially handle 250 million standard cubic feet per day of gas, expandable to 500 million, Excelerate said.

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The Texas-based company said last week that its FSRU Hull 3407 had just returned from sea trials after passing performance and safety testing.

“This step is essential for preparing the vessel for deployment to Excelerate’s integrated LNG import facility in Iraq,” it said.

Hull 3407 was built at the HD Hyundai Heavy Industries shipyard in South Korea.

Nabil Al Marsoumi, an author and professor of economics at Basra University, said he also believed Iraq would use Qatari gas “to fuel its power facilities”.

“I am not sure about the quantities Iraq will import or the pricing of the LNG to be purchased,” he said, “but Iraqi officials have visited Qatar several times over the past months to consider buying gas.”

As well as these trips to Qatar, Iraq’s caretaker prime minister Mohammed Al Sudani visited Oman in September 2025 to discuss imports and other investments.

Iraq, which controls the world’s fifth largest proven oil deposits of about 145 billion barrels, said last year it would purchase floating terminals to import LNG after the US objected to the Turkmenistan deal on the grounds that gas would pass through Iran’s pipeline network.

The decision followed a sharp decline in Iranian gas supplies, which account for nearly 40 percent of the power generation at Iraq’s gas-run power facilities.