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Iraqi Government Acts to Defuse Power-Cut Rage

By Abu Iraq and Khalid Waleed. This article was originally published by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, iwpr.net, and it is reproduced by Iraq Business News with permission. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News Iraq's government sacked a senior energy […]

KAR Group to Expand Kalak Refinery

By John Lee. KAR Group, an Iraqi integrated oil and gas company, has announced the third expansion of their Kalak Refinery to 185,000 barrels per day (BPD). Process units and utilities are being provided by Ventech Engineers LLC of Pasadena, Texas. Ventech has provided modularized crude-distillation units, naphtha hydrotreaters, catalytic reformers, isomerization units, demercaptanization systems, […]

165 New Companies Registered in July

By John Lee. AIN reports that Iraq's Ministry of Trade has registered 165 new companies in July. The Director General of registrations at the Companies Department, Feryal Akram Abdullah, told the news agency that: ''About 29 offices belonging to foreign companies have been registered as well as five branches for various foreign companies.'' (Source: AIN)

A Good Month for Iraqi Oil Shares

By John Lee. Like good comedy, the secret of good investment is often said to be timing. Someone buying shares at the end of June in Heritage Oil, which has interests in Iraqi Kurdistan, may have had reason to be concerned if they planned to sell shortly afterwards, as the shares were suspended in early July […]

Korea's Posco Wins $700m KRG Power Contract

By John Lee. The KRG has signed contracts worth $700 million (840 billion Iraqi dinars) with South Korea’s Posco Engineering & Construction Company and the Korea National Oil Company (KNOC) to build a power station and tranformer. Posco will build the plants and KNOC will finance the projects in line with terms of its 2008 […]

European Companies to Build Iraqi Operating Theaters

By John Lee. Iraq has signed contracts worth a total of $152 million with four European companies to build medical facilities throughout the country. Sorima Hospital Development of Italy, Ermedi International of France, Viessmann Technologies GmbH of Germany, and HT Labor & Hospital Technik AG, also of Germany, will each build 19 operating theaters. Qais […]

When Will Kirkuk-Ceyhan Pipeline Re-Open?

By John Lee. Estimates vary as to when oil will flow again through the pipeline that runs from Kirkuk to the Turkish port of Ceyhan (pictured), following the attack that halted exports on Sunday. Dow Jones quotes a shipping agent as saying on Wednesday that pumping is not expected to resume until he weekend. Reuters, […]

Un-Licensed Insurers “Liable to Severe Financial Penalties”

By Padraig O'Hannelly. With increasing commercial activity in Iraq, much of it by foreign-based investors, there's a growing market for adequate insurance to cover the risks. But in a country emerging from years of chaos, how can you be sure that the insurance you buy is legal and valid? To help clarify this point, Iraq […]

Iraqi Unemployment "to be Eliminated" by 2016

By John Lee. The Undersecretary of the Iraqi Ministry of Labour, Dara Yara, has said that unemployment in Iraq will be eliminated by 2016 under a new “strategic plan”. According to the Labor Ministry’s figures, about 16% of Iraq’s workforce is unemployed, but other estimates put the figure much higher. “We are working on eliminating […]