The Kurdistan Ministry of Agriculture and Water is building three small dams to tackle the water crisis near Koya, Sulaimaniyah. Minister Jamil Suleiman told AKnews that the projects in Bawajan, Qoritan and Timarok villages will cost $552,500. The projects are funded from the 2011 ministry budget, have already been started, and will be completed within […]
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PM Assigns Shahristani as Acting Electricity Minister
The Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs, Hussein al-Shahristani, has been nominated to the post of Acting Minister of Electricity, along with his current post, the semi-official Iraqiya TV Satellite Station reported on Wednesday. “Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has assigned his Deputy for Energy Afffairs, Hussein al-Shahristani, to hold the administration of the Minister of […]
Heritage Oil Announces Interim Results
Heritage Oil has announced its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2011. Operational Highlights · Miran West-3 well in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq ("Kurdistan"), commenced drilling on 7 August 2011 · Miran 3D seismic acquisition is nearing completion and 2D seismic acquisition in the southern portion of the Miran Block has […]
Altobridge Wins Asiacell Iraq Business
Asiacell – the first and largest private Iraqi telecommunications company and the first mobile telecom company to provide coverage for all of Iraq – today announced rolling out mobile voice, broadband and SMS services across remote communities in Iraq using the Altobridge lite-site™ solution. A satellite-backhauled, solar-powered, 2G/3G solution, the Altobridge lite-site™ enables mobile network […]
Local Govts Support Kurdistan Oil & Gas Conference
Supported by the Kurdistan Regional Government, the Iraqi Government and the Ministry of Natural Resources – Kurdistan, Kurdistan-Iraq Oil & Gas will take place in Erbil on the 13-15 November 2011. The summit will be opened by H.E. Dr Barahm Salih, Prime Minister of Kurdistan and H.E. Dr Ashti Hawrami, Minister of Natural resources as […]
Supreme Court Publishes the Bulani Ruling
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. […]
Foundation Stone Laid for Giant Food Warehouse
Sinan Chalabi, Kurdistan trade and industry minister, laid the foundation stone on Wednesday for a new government-owned food storage warehouse in Erbil AKnews reports that the project, with capital of $1.5 million, will be completed in one year. The building which will store the monthly food-rations of residents will be constructed on 4,000 square meters […]
Iraq's Planning Minister Meets UAE Ambassador
Iraq’s Planning Minister, Ali Yousif al-Shakari [Ali al-Shukri], pictured, met with Rashid al-Mansouri, the Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to discuss joint cooperation between the two countries. Minister Shakari expressed his admiration for the UAE, according to Aswat al-Iraq. The agency quotes the Ambassador as “having expressed UAE’s readiness to expand horizons of […]
Just How International is Iraq?
If anyone ever doubted the international nature of business in Iraq, just look at the list of nationalities represented on the list of companies pre-qualified for the country's fourth round of oil licences: Angola China Croatia Egypt France India Indonesia Italy Japan Kuwait Malaysia Netherlands Norway Pakistan Russia South Korea Thailand Turkey United Arab Emirates […]
MoU signed for Mosul Refinery
A refinery with a capacity of 150,000 barrels per day will be constructed by the Egyptian Qalaa Company in Nineveh province. In a statement, Deputy Oil Minister Ahmed Shamaa said the Ministry of Oil has contracted Qalaa to establish the refinery which will process the crude oil from the Najma and Gayar fields near Mosul. […]
Iraqi Govt to Tighten Importation Regulations
From the beginning of 2012 the Ministry of Trade will strictly control the importation of goods into the country, says the minister. Khayrullah Hassan told AKnews that the ministry will work according to a quota system based on need, and all imports must attain its prior approval. “We will not allow businessmen to trade in […]
Najaf Grants $56m Investment Licences
Najaf Investment Commission announced on Tuesday that it has granted two investment licenses worth a total of $56 million. According to AKnews, one is to build a residential complex in Manathira district, and the other is to build a tourist hotel in Najaf city. Wafi al-Bahhash, the head of the commission, told AKnews that the […]


