By John Lee. The Czech cabinet has postponed a decision on the sale of redundant L-159 subsonic fighters to Iraq. Defence Minister Martin Stropnicky said on Wednesday that "the way of assigning the proceeds from the sale to the Defence Ministry must be defined before the decision is made." Global Times reports that the Czech Defence […]
By John Lee. Basra Gateway Terminal (BGT) announced on Thursday that its operations at the Port of Umm Qasr are now fully operational. BGT chief executive Phillip Marsham said in a statement: “We are attracting plenty of interest from container lines and have enjoyed a good pace of cargo buildup since we opened the doors […]
By John Lee. Prime Minister Dr. Haider Al-Abadi received the German Ambassador in Baghdad, Mr. Ekkehard Brose, at his office on Wednesday. The meeting discussed means of promoting bilateral relations especially security, training and armament cooperation in addition to the economic, trade and investment fields. H.E. mentioned that Iraq is looking forward to a promising […]
By John Lee. Shares in Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) were down 10 percent on Friday morning, after it announced the suspension of crude oil exports by truck from Iraqi Kurdistan. The company said it remains in a dialogue with the Kurdistan Regional Government's Ministry of Natural Resources ("MNR"), in order to receive the outstanding payments […]
By John Lee. Parsons has announced that it was recently awarded the front-end engineering design (FEED) for South Oil Company’s Common Seawater Supply Project in southern Iraq. This landmark project will provide 12.5 million barrels of water per day (bwpd) of treated seawater to oilfields in southern Iraq. Parsons’ scope of work includes conducting 14 […]
Baroness Nicholson and a delegation of Iraq Britain Business Council (IBBC) members had a meeting in Baghdad with Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister, Dr Rowsch Shaways, followed by an exchange of views with Iraq’s Minister of Oil, HE Adel Abdul-Mehdi. The meetings were extremely informative and Minister Abdul-Mehdi made a point in welcoming and encouraging further […]
By Patrick Schmidt. The United States military has repositioned and deployed additional military resources to Iraq in the wake of two major events. The brutal murder of a Jordanian fighter pilot by the Islamic State (IS, ISIS, ISIL) has sent another shock through the international community. As a result, the United Arab Emirates has withdrawn […]
By Patrick Schmidt. The United States Department of Defense announced this week that the Islamic State (IS, ISIS, ISIL) no longer receives the majority of income from oil sales. Officials now believe that the group is funded mainly through private donations as well as black market sales. Additional pressure has mounted against the Islamic State […]
By John Lee. Norwegian oil and gas operator DNO reported record oil and gas output in 2014, but the results were impacted by one-off impairment charges in the fourth quarter driven in part by the drop in global oil prices. Gross output was up 66 percent last year to 117,482 barrels of oil equivalent per […]
By John Lee. The UN Security Council has reportedly approved the appointment of Nikolay Mladenov as the United Nations' top Middle East envoy, replacing Dutch diplomat Robert Serry. Mladenov, aged 42, has been the UN envoy in Iraq since August 2013, and has previously served as Bulgarian foreign and defense minister. No replacement for Mladenov […]
By John Lee. Iraq is to permanently lift a decade-old curfew on Baghdad. Brigadier General Saad Maan, the spokesman for the Baghdad Operation Brigade, told the AFP news agency that Prime Minister al-Abadi ordered that the curfew be completely lifted from this Saturday. According to a report from Al Jazeera, the hours it has been […]
The head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) voiced alarm today over the reported destruction of thousands of books in museums, libraries and universities across Mosul – the northern Iraq city currently controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). According to the UN agency, the books – […]
