Basrah airport has been hit by several mortars over the last week. Although no casualties were reported the facility was shut for several hours and flights delayed and cancelled as a result. Local militancy Blame has speculatively been assigned to local Shi'ah militia groups, such as those affiliated with the now splintered Jaysh al-Mahdi (the […]
Last week a Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) official revealed that October year-on-year core CPI inflation jumped to 3.2% from just 1.87% in September, breaking a nine-month downtrend. At first glance, you might conclude that Iraq is now at the start of the same CPI uptrend that its neighbors, and indeed much of the developing […]
Shares in Gulf Keystone Petroleum (LSE: GKP) gained 4% this morning following the commencement of drilling at the Shaikan-2 appraisal well. The text of the company's announcement follows: Gulf Keystone announces the commencement of drilling operations on its Shaikan-2 appraisal well, on December 1, 2010. This is the first deep appraisal well to be drilled […]
The United States Department of Defense has issued notification of proposed sales of arms from the US to Iraq. General Dynamics is to be the prime contractor on a $36m deal for the supply of ammunition for Iraq's Abrams M1A1 tanks (pictured). The sale consists of: 14,010 TP-T M831A1 120mm Cartridges; 16,110 TPCSDS-T M865 120mm […]
The Egyptian Consul General to Kurdistan Region, Suleiman Othman, said that flights between Egypt and the Region will commence in December, and passengers to Egypt can get their visas in Erbil. In an interview with AKnews on Monday, the consul said that Nile Air will launch Cairo-Erbil and Sulaimaniya-Cairo routes. "This step will definitely improve […]
Lafarge, the world’s biggest cement maker, plans to increase its annual capacity in Iraq by 2 million tons by 2013 as the country rebuilds homes and infrastructure destroyed by war, according to a report from Bloomberg. Lafarge currently has capacity of 6 million tons a year across three plants and is producing 4 million tons, […]
By Lisa Knight, Creative Director & Founder of The Brand Foundation. Since 2007 Iraq has witnessed a number of multinationals setting up regional operations – GE, Daimler Benz, Shell, and global finance and banking institutions such as J. P Morgan Chase and Citibank publicly proclaiming an interest in the Iraqi financial sector, its only a […]
The Kurdistan Region Government (KRG) has announced that it is to open a representative office in Austria. A KRG official said that the Prime Minister, Dr. Barham Saleh, signed an official document to assign Mustafa R. Koran as the representative in the office. He added that steps will continue to open more offices in other […]
The Iraqi cabinet has approved a draft 2011 budget on Tuesday that envisages a deficit of 14 trillion dinars ($11.99 billion), down from an expected deficit of $19.6 billion for this year, according to a report from Reuters. The budget, which still needs parliamentary approval, is based on an oil price of $73 a barrel, […]
Iraq has once again postponed its first census in more than 20 years because of Kurdish-Arab wrangling over disputed areas in the north, Deputy Planning Minister Mehdi al-Alak told AFP on Tuesday. The delay to the census, which had been due to be held on December 5, is the latest in a string of deferrals […]
A Kuwaiti company received two investment licenses in Muthanna, according to a media source at the Muthanna Investment Commission, quoted by Aswat al-Iraq. “Kuwait’s al-Mahamed company received two investment licenses to implement a residential compound, which contains 2,000 apartments, in addition to the establishment of a cement factory in the Badiya al-Samawa region,” Ali Hanoun […]
The recent two-day skills development event run by GetEnergy in Basra a few weeks ago attracted 120 participants from 20 international companies. Nihad Moosa, the Director General of Development and Training at Iraq's Ministry of Oil, delivered the opening speech announcing the Ministry's policies in the areas training and learning. Workshops conducted over the following […]
