Archive | 2014

Barzani, Talabani Tasked to Form KRG Cabinet

Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani has signed an order tasking Prime Minister designate Nechirvan Barzani and Deputy Prime Minister designate Qubad Talabani to form the eighth Cabinet of the Kurdistan Regional Government. Prime Minister Barzani will continue in his role in the same capacity, while Minister Talabani will move from his current role as Head […]

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Foreign Minister Receives Russian Ambassador

By John Lee. Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hoshyar Zebari received on May 21, 2014, Ambassador of the Republic of the Russian Federation, Elia Morgnov. During the meeting, the Russian Ambassador congratulated the Iraqi people for the success of the legislative elections, hoping to achieve progress and prosperity of Iraq. The two sides discussed bilateral and […]

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Swara Tika Discovery Declared Commercial

HKN Energy Ltd. (HKN) has announced that it has notified the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq (KRG) that the Swara Tika discovery is a “Commercial Discovery” pursuant to the terms of the Sarsang Production Sharing Contract. HKN, as operator of the Sarsang Block, has drilled two wells on the Swara Tika structure. The Swara Tika-1 […]

WesternZagros Up on Possible "Eye-Popping" Increase

By John Lee. Shares in WesternZagros Resources were up 8 percent in early trading on Wednesday following the announcement of its operating and financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2014. Commenting on the first quarter results and subsequent events, WesternZagros's Chief Executive Officer Simon Hatfield (pictured) said: "There have been several key […]

Iraq parliament Supports Basra-Aqaba Pipeline

By John Lee. Iraq’s parliament fully supports a project to build an $18 billion pipeline to export crude oil from Basra to Jordan’s port city of Aqaba. Speaking to The Jordan Times, Adnan Al Janabi, chairman of the Iraqi parliament's energy committee said: “We are very supportive of this strategic project with Jordan, which will […]

KRG PM Barzani meets UK ministers

Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani yesterday continued discussions on deepening Kurdistan-UK relations in meetings with the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, the British Minister of State for International Development, Alan Duncan, and the British Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport, Robert Goodwill. In each meeting officials from both sides emphasised the importance of exploring new […]

Zebari Meets Chinese Ambassador

By John Lee. Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has met the Ambassador of the People's Republic of China, Wang Yong. The Minister confirmed Iraq's participation in the Fourth Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in the Asia States to be held in Shanghai, China. Iraq participates in the conference with a delegation comprising […]

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ERGIL Receives Approval from KRG

By John Lee. Turkish-based ERGIL, a worldwide specialist in engineering, construction and manufacturing for oil, gas, water, chemical and petrochemical industries has announced that it has been enlisted as an approved supplier/contractor by the Kurdistan Regional Government Ministry of Natural Resources in Erbil, Iraq. As an official party, ERGIL is now qualified to participate in […]

Weekly Security Update 13 - 19 May 2014

By Constellis Consulting www.constellis-consulting.com Initial election results released by the Independent High Electoral Commission on May 19 showed that Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki’s State of Law coalition won the largest share of seats, with at least 94 elected MPs in the 328-member parliament. Though previous estimates predicted that Maliki’s party would lead the polls, proportions exceeded expectations […]

Maliki's State of Law 'Wins Most Seats'

Preliminary results show that Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's State of Law alliance won last month's parliamentary elections in Iraq, but fell short of a majority. The Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) said State of Law had taken 92 of the 328 seats in the Council of Representatives, putting it in the lead in 10 of […]

Elections Result: Maliki’s Complicated Win

By Reidar Visser. The following article was published by Reidar Visser, an historian of Iraq educated at the University of Oxford. It is reproduced here with the author’s permission. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. The uncertified result of Iraq’s parliamentary elections, released by the election […]

Iraqi Kurdistan Boosts Dana Gas Production

By John Lee. Dana Gas has reported a 67 percent rise in operating profits in 1Q 2014 to US$ 45 million (AED 164 million) as compared to US$ 27 million (AED 98 million) in Q1 2013. This excludes the one-off gains of US$ 39 million (AED 143 million) profits arising out of the partial sale […]