By John Lee. Shares in oil exploration company Afren closed up over 3% on Tuesday following the announcement of the company's interim results. The company gave the following update on its operations in Iraqi Kurdistan: Barda Rash Extensive testing commenced at the BR-1 well on 7 July 2012 and has yielded oil rates in excess […]
By John Lee. Iraq's core inflation rate dropped to 5.9 percent year-on-year in July, Mudher Kasim, deputy governor of the Iraqi Central Bank, has told Reuters. The figure is down from 6.1 percent in June. Core inflation strips out fuel prices. (Source: Reuters)
By John Lee. An MP and member of the Parliamentary Oil and Energy Committee has hit out at Saudi Arabia for its "hostile policy" towards Iraq. Udai Awad, of the Ahrar bloc within the Sadrist Trend, told AIN: "The reason for the dispute with Saudi Arabia is the attempt by KSA [Kingdom of Saudi Arabia] […]
By John Lee. The Provincial Council in Babel [Babil] has voted unanimously for "the participation of each of Karbala, Babil and Najaf provinces in managing the Mid-Euphrates airport, which is hopefully established in the land among the three provinces". The Head of the Investment Committee in the Council, Mahdi Aakul, told AIN: "The participation will […]
By John Lee. Shares in Heritage Oil closed up 12.3% on Tuesday following the announcement that it will sell part of its Miran Block in Kurdistan and borrow money from Genel Energy to raise $450 million to fund oilfield purchases in Nigeria. The comany will sell a 26 percent stake in the block to Genel and […]
By John Lee. Kurdistan's Minister for Natural Resources, Ashti Hawrami (pictured), has hit back at reports that the US has warned oil companies not to sign any oil deals with Kurdistan without Baghdad's approval or Baghdad may take legal action against them. According to AKnews, Hawrami described the media reports quoting Nuland as "baseless ….These […]
By John Lee. Genel Energy has increased its commitment to oil exploration in Iraqi Kurdistan with the announcement that it has agreed to acquire an additional 26 per cent interest in the Miran exploration block from Heritage Oil. The announcement comes just a day after the Kurdistan Regional Government's Oil and Gas Council approved the […]
By John Lee. At the US State Department's Daily Press Briefing on Monday, Spokesperson Victoria Nuland was asked to clarify the US Government's official position on oil contracts in Iraqi Kurdistan. "Our position on this has not changed", she said. "We’ve spoken about it many times here. We speak about it in Iraq. With regard […]
By John Lee. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) has notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Iraq for commercially available Federal Aviation Administration Air Traffic Control and Landing System/Navigational Aids and associated equipment, parts, training and logistical support at an estimated cost of $60 million The Government of […]
By John Lee. An MP and member of Regions and Provinces Committee called on the Iraqi Cabinet to punish ministries who are slow in the implementation of projects. Mahdi Haji told AIN that ministries should not hold meetings to pretend to be working, and the Cabinet should punish procrastinators. He said that some ministries did […]
By John Lee. The General Secretariat for the Council of Ministers has announced that it will form a committee headed by the Minister of Sciences and Technology Dr. Abdul-Kareem Al-Samarrai, to restore the Minaret Mosque in Samarra (pictured). The Director of Samarra’ Endowments, the Director of the Province’s Antiquities, and the province's Budget Director will […]
By John Lee. Shares in ShaMaran Petroleum were down 13% on Monday following the announcement that the company has sold its entire 20% undivided participating interest in the Taza PSC (held by the fully-owned subsidiary ShaMaran Petroleum B.V.) to a subsidiary of Total S.A. for the cash sum of US$ 48 million plus a reimbursement […]
