KRG: influential people prevent the delivery of liquid gas to Erbil and Dohuk
Shafaq News / The spokesman of Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Jotiyar Adel attributed on Sunday, the increased cooking gas prices in Erbil and Duhok governorates due to influential people prevention from accessing this material through the use of weapons and intimidation.
Adel said in a statement today that "the issue of transporting gas to the provinces of the region was a monopoly for (Dana Gas) company and it was recently subjected to a tender to win by one of the companies, and the winning company was scheduled to start its work earlier this year, but influential people in Karmyan and Sulaymaniyah borders prevented it and used this is as a pressure card to prevent the delivery of the necessary liquid gas material to Erbil and Dohuk, which led to high gas prices in the two governorates. "
He added that "the influential people practiced violence during the past two days towards the company, which led to the aggravation of the situation, as well as informing the citizens of this problem, we assure them that KRG will not back down from the reform steps and will take all legal means to subject monopolists and mafias to the law”.
The Mayor of Erbil Governorate, Nabz Abdul Hamid announced earlier that unknown gunmen in Chamchamal district in Sulaymaniyah province kidnapped a contractor providing cooking gas to the capital of Kurdistan Region.
Abdul Hamid said in a press conference today that gunmen kidnapped the owner of a company that provides gas to Erbil, pointing out that the kidnapper was tortured in order to prevent him from transporting gas from the only source of his production in Kurdistan Region, which is the "Kormor" field to Erbil.
He added that Erbil governorate sent an official letter to the regional government, appealing to it to intervene with the release of the kidnapped person , and the return of natural gas to Erbil.
Erbil has witnessed for days scarcity in cooking gas, as the price of one cylinder reached about 18,000 Iraqi dinars, after it was 7500 dinars, according to the official price.
