As Reidar Visser reported this week, the Iraqi parliament is taking a six-week break, not re-assembling until 20th November. How they spend their time will vary, of course, and I'm sure that some will be much busier than others. But for those who will be taking the opportunity for some constructive leisure time, a good […]
Iraq's deputy prime minister has said that oil contracts signed by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) must be rewritten, and that recent government payments to international producers in the region in no way validate the contracts, according to a report from Reuters. "The contracts as they stand will have to be presented to the government […]
Iraq took responsibility for all of its airspace this month for the first time since the 2003 US-led invasion, according to AFP. The US Air Force (USAF) has transferred management of the Baghdad/Balad Airspace sector to the Iraq Civil Aviation Authority (ICAA). Iraq's air traffic controllers are now directing the movement of all aircraft within […]
The governorate of Sulaimaniya is planning to build five grain silos by the end of 2012, according to Hama-Hussein Hama-Saeed, deputy general director at the Kurdistan trade ministry. AKnews reports that the silos, worth $116 million (138 billion Iraqi dinars), will have a capacity of 240,000 tons of grain. "With these silos, we'll be able […]
The following article was published by Reidar Visser, an historian of Iraq educated at the University of Oxford and currently based at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. 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. […]
Turkey and Iraq have agreed to open two new border crossings to boost trade and accommodate increasing traffic between the two neighbors, according to a report from Today’s Zaman. The issue was discussed during a two-day visit by Iraqi Foreign Affairs Minister Hoshyar Zebari to Ankara on Wednesday. The formal agreement for the opening of […]
Asiacell has selected HSBC and Morgan Stanley to manage its initial public offering (IPO) on the Iraqi bourse, according to Bloomberg. Chief Executive Officer Diar Ahmed told the news agency that the company will offer 25 percent of its shares, but did not specify when. The company, which is an affiliate of Qatar Telecom, is […]
The Director General of the South Oil Company said on Wednesday that they plan to build a fifth floating oil pier when the four currently under construction are completed. Aswat al-Iraq reports that the four piers are expected to be finished by late-2013 or early-2014. The first of these piers will start exporting oil at […]
The U.S. State Department plans to deploy 16,000 civilian employees in Iraq, the Washington Post reports. And while the U.S. military is supposed to be out of Iraq by the end of the year, the two governments are trying to negotiate an agreement for a small training force to remain. But those forces will be […]
Output at Iraq’s Halfaya oilfield will rise to 70,000 barrels a day in 2012 with the drilling of 48 wells, As Sabah newspaper said on Tuesday. Bloomberg reports that two projects valued at a total of $187 million will be built next year at the oilfield. The projects include a crude oil processing facility with […]
Gulf Keystone Petroleum has announced that the Ber Bahr-1 Exploration Well has spudded on the Ber Bahr block in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq on Monday, 10th October 2011. Ber Bahr-1 is the first exploration well to be drilled on the Ber Bahr block, which covers an area of 208 km² and lies to the […]
Dubai's Majid Al Futtaim Holding (MAF), sole franchisee of hypermarket chain Carrefour in the Gulf, is to set up a sukuk programme (debt securities structured to comply with the Islamic law) as market volatility continues to thwart its plans for a conventional issue, according to a report from Reuters. MAF completed roadshows for an offering […]
