By John Lee. Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO) has adjusted its official selling prices for its Basra Light and Kirkuk crude grades for August. In common with some other countries, Iraq’s oil is priced relative to regional benchmark prices: For shipments to US, contracts are priced are relative to the Argus Sour Crude Index […]
By John Lee. Iraq's General Company for Post & Telecommunications, which is part of the Ministry of Communications, has announced a steep reduction in the price of international telephone calls. NINA reports that a statement by the company on Wednesday said that prices would be cut from 250 Iraqi dinars [per minute?] to 108 dinars. […]
By John Lee. WesternZagros Resources has completed the remediation work at its Sarqala-1 producing oil well and is preparing to test the promising Shiranish reservoir in the Kurdamir-2 well. WesternZagros also continues to actively cooperate with the Kurdistan Regional Government ("KRG") in the effort to assign the third party participant interest ("TPPI") within the Garmian […]
By John Lee. Two oil executives in the Kurdistan Region have told Reuters that Chevron is purchasing 80 percent of the Sarta and Rovi blocks from India's Reliance Industries. Austria's OMV holds the other 20 percent interest in Sarta/Rovi. Chevron reportedly declined to comment on Wednesday, saying that it continued to be interested in pursuing […]
By Mark DeWeaver. The ISX historically has tended to go down in the second half of the year. Last November, I argued that this may be due to the timing of capital increases. (See this post.) If this is the case, the recently announced new rules on share suspensions mean that the market will no […]
By John Lee. Alstom Grid has announced that it has won contracts worth €34 million ($42 million) from KAR Construction & Engineering Company to engineer and supply substations for the electrical grid. The company will supply four 132/33/11 kV Air-insulated Switchgear (AIS) substations and one 132/33/11 kV Gas-insulated Switchgear (GIS) substation for the Kurdistan Regional […]
By John Lee. Bloomberg reports that Iraq will reduce its daily exports of Basrah Light crude from the Persian Gulf by 3.8 percent in the second half of July, compared with shipments in the previous two weeks. Twenty-four cargoes are scheduled to be shipped from the al-Basrah Oil Terminal (pictured), up from 18 in the […]
By John Lee. A glass factory in Anbar has resumed production after a break of 10 years. AKnews reports that factory manager Fadhil Ahmed said the factory’s production line is now fully functioning with the help of the Ministry of Industry using local expertise. “The factory is now capable of producing high quality products like […]
By John Lee. A new video produced by USAID showcases the Al-Zatoon Olive Association's new processing plant in Ninawa province, home of the first mechanized olive oil presser in Iraq and a model for similar demonstration projects in Kurdistan, Salah al Din and the Tallafar district of Ninawa province. A new olive oil industry in […]
By John Lee. Northern Ireland's Enterprise Minister, Arlene Foster (pictured), has today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Kurdistan Regional Government, which will strengthen trade links and define areas of co-operation between the two regions. The MOU is the result of the Minister’s visit to Kurdistan in October 2011 when she met with […]
By John Lee. The Samawa Business Development Center (SBDC) continues to expand the range of services it provides in Muthanna Province to meet the needs of government and businesses alike. Initially benefitting from grants and support provided by the Dhi Qar and Muthana Provincial Reconstruction Team and the USAID-Tijara program, the SBDC has grown from […]
By John Lee. Iran's Oil Minister, Rostam Qasemi (pictured), says his country is expected to start exporting natural gas to Iraq by the end of the next Iranian year (to start March 21, 2013), reports the Iranian news agency PressTV. Last year, the oil ministers of Iran, Iraq and Syria agreed to construct a pipeline […]
