War delays Iraq’s gas import project in General Energy News 18/05/2026 The Middle East conflict has blocked Iraq’s plans to import gas via its first offshore terminal, which could aggravate power shortages during the peak summer season. The start-up of Iraq’s first LNG import terminal, planned to be based at the Port of Khor Al Zubair in the Gulf, has been delayed until 2027 due to the conflict between Iran and the US-Israeli alliance, according to Western media reports. Work on jetty reinforcement and fixed terminal infrastructure has experienced temporary setbacks, pushing the startup date back from the previously expected third quarter of 2026, the reports said, citing a statement by the US-based Excelerate Energy. In October 2025, the NYSE-listed company had signed a binding commercial agreement with the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity for the project, which includes a five-year LNG supply and regasification agreement with renewal options and a minimum offtake commitment of 250 million standard cubic feet per day (MMscf/d). The floating LNG import terminal, designed to accommodate a guaranteed 500 MMscf/d of regasification capacity, was expected to cost approximately $450 million all inclusive. The reports cited the company as saying the project’s long-term outlook remains unchanged, pointing to Iraq’s persistent electricity shortages and limited domestic gas processing capacity as major factors sustaining demand for imported LNG. “We are revising our full-year guidance to reflect the delayed startup of our Iraq terminal due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, mitigated in part by the expected interim deployment of the Excelerate Acadia to Jordan,” the company said in its first quarter 2026 results statement. In May 2026, Excelerate executed a nine-month time-charter party agreement with Jordan’s National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) to deploy the Excelerate Acadia FSRU to the country’s existing LNG Terminal in Aqaba. Iraq work resumption Excelerate said