By John Lee. Standard Chartered has announced the appointment of Ahmed Muallah as Managing Director and Head of its Wholesale Banking business in Iraq. Commenting on the appointment, Gavin Wishart, Chief Executive Officer, Standard Chartered Iraq said: “This appointment comes as another testament to our long term commitment to Iraq. Standard Chartered is bringing its best international financial business […]
By John Lee. Iraq is now among the biggest spenders in the Middle East when it comes to planned or under-way infrastructure projects, rivalling the expenditure of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, according to the MEED's Gulf Project's Index. Iraq's southern neighbours are spending $1.o5 trillion and $713bn respectively,but Iraq's rising expenditure on energy projects […]
By John Lee. The French Ambassador in Baghdad Dennis Gauer (pictured) has accompanied a delegation from the French Foreign Ministry including Jean Francois Giraud, Head of the North Africa and Middle East Department at the ministry. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and his ministry's head of the Europe Department greeted the delegation, and issues such […]
By John Lee. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has spoken at a ceremony to mark the start of construction on Karbala's forthcoming 140,000 bpd refinery, Iraq Directory reports. As part of Iraq's energy strategy to increase refining capacity to 750,000 bpd, the new $6 billion refinery will be constructed by a consortium led by Hyundai Engineering and […]
By John Lee. An investigation by Reuters has found that Iraq has purchased $195 million worth of small arms, ammunition and infantry kit from Iran, in addition to artillery ammunition. The move will likely unnerve some observers in the US, but analysts are still divided over the extent of Iranian influence in Iraq. Touted by an […]
By John Lee. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari in Baghdad in a rare Chinese high level diplomatic mission to Baghdad. The two men discussed increased Sino-Iraqi cooperation in areas such as oil development and arms sales. Until recently, Iraq has been frustrated by slow deliveries of weapons systems from […]
By John Lee. Baghdad based Iraqi-Kurdish company KAR has won the contract to build Ninewa's planned 90,000 bpd oil refinery. To date, the KAR Group have been working on the Erbil refinery in partnership with the Texas based Ventech Company, in addition to a number of oil, gas and construction projects in Iraq. When complete […]
By John Lee. Just as some observers were saying the dispute looked intractable, Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussein al-Shahristani has announced a potentially big breakthrough in the ongoing saga of deal and no deal between Baghdad and the Kurdish Regional Government over oil exports to Turkey and oil revenues. Reuters has reported that after intensive […]
By Semih Idiz for Al-Monitor. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. With hundred of thousands of barrels of its oil stuck in the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, unable to be sold on the world market because of its continuing row with Baghdad, the Kurdistan Regional […]
By John Lee. As part of an effort to continue to develop and expand oil production in Northern Iraq, the Minister for Oil Abdul Kareem Luaibi [Elaibi] (pictured) has announced that the ministry is accelerating development at the Hamrin (Himreen) field. This is despite an increased security risk in the area around the field's infrastructure, […]
By John Lee. Intensive competition to supply China's oil demand has combined with slowing demand for oil globally, and this is putting downward pressure on oil prices in 2014, Reuters reports. Iraq and Russia have positioned themselves to be long term suppliers of the Asian giant, squeezing out African and Latin American producers trying to improve […]
By Ali Mamouri for Al-Monitor. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. On Oct. 20, 2010, the United Nations declared the first week of February the annual Interfaith Harmony Week. That decision came after a series of UN attempts to promote peace and harmony between different cultures and […]
