Author Archive | Bob Tollast

Yildiz: Oil Still in Storage at Ceyhan

By John Lee. Turkish energy minister Taner Yildiz (pictured) has hinted that his country will not sell oil from the port of Ceyhan until there has been an agreement between Baghdad and Erbil. Minister Yildiz noted that the Turkish Petroleum Refineries Corporation (TPAO) does not currently need to move the Iraqi oil in storage, although the […]

Iranian Gas to Supply Basra

By John Lee. Gas from the South Pars field in Iran could be supplying power stations in the province of Basra within a year, reports UPI. A pipeline currently under construction will run from Asaluyeh to Iraq's southern city of 2 million people, and may later extend to Syria, depending on conditions "after the war" according […]

DNO Announce First Quarter Results

By John Lee. DNO International ASA, the Norwegian oil and gas company, today announced first quarter 2014 net profit of USD 24 million on operating revenue of USD 113 million. Production climbed by more than a quarter from the previous quarter to 45,744 barrels of oil equivalent per day on a company working interest (CWI) basis. The […]

Petroceltic Operations Update

By John Lee. Petroceltic International plc, the independent oil and gas exploration company focused on the Middle East, North Africa, Mediterranean and Black Sea regions, has announced an update on its operations in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Egypt and Romania. Below we have included their operations update for the Kurdistan region of Iraq: Kurdistan: The Shakrok-1 […]

Shell: Majnoon Exports Commence

By John Lee. Once a scene of bloody fighting during the Iran-Iraq war, Majnoon is now an oil field of vital economic importance for Iraq. Royal Dutch Shell's announcement marks a crucial step in its development since the discovery of the field in 1975. After a lull in development during the sanctions era of the […]

Bayshore Announce Heavy Oil Project

By John Lee. Bayshore Petroleum Corp is pleased to announce that it has entered into a Letter of Intent with International Enhanced Petroleum Services (EPS), a private UAE company with its registered office located in the Jebel Ali Free Zone, UAE and operating in Iraq, to construct a pilot heavy oil upgrading facility utilizing a […]

Housing Project Completed in Najaf

By John Lee. Iraq's minister of housing and construction Mohammed al Daraji has announced the completion of a 500 unit housing complex in Najaf, Iraq. Iraq is currently in the middle of a major drive to build 2 million new housing units, and a number of international construction firms are working on projects within Iraq […]

US-Iraq Security Cooperation Continues

By Hassan al Najm for Al-Monitor. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. Lt. Gen. Michael Bednarek, chief of the US Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq, said that the Iraqi government and armed forces are working on countering terrorism in cooperation with the United […]

CPECC, Petrofac Win Rumaila Contracts

By John Lee. Iraq has announced the award of two contracts totalling nearly a billion dollars to Britain's Petrofac and China's CPECC, Reuters reports. The deals, for services at the super-giant Rumaila field near Basra, were worth $535.8 million for Petrofac and $425 million for China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Corporation. Rumaila is a field of key strategic […]

ICF Charity Event: Lukman Faily Runs Again!

By John Lee. For our more athletic readers in the US, we are pleased to announce a special charity event in Alexandria, Virginia on the 10th of May. Impressively, Iraq's Ambassador to the US Lukman Faily (pictured) will be the Distinguished Guest Runner having recently run in the Boston Marathon. This looks like a fun […]

Oil Companies Pledge $15m to Refugees

By John Lee. Oil companies operating in the Kurdistan Region have so far donated $15 million dollars towards humanitarian aid for refugees from the war in Syria, through an initiative launched by the KRG Ministry of Natural Resources. Thousands of Syrian refugees who have fled to the Kurdistan Region have received help through the donations. […]

Iraq Authorises 3G Licenses

By John Lee. The Iraqi government has announced that it will shortly offer licenses to mobile operators to give customers 3G internet service, AFP reports. The colossal increase in mobile phone ownership in Iraq post 2003 has been one of the notable developments in the country, a nation which still has a highly limited fixed-line network. Mobile […]