Iraq Business News brings you the latest information on developments and opportunities in the oil and gas industry in Iraq.
By John Lee. Chinese oil companies are to maintain their purchasing of crude oil from Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) at the 2014 level for next year, according to a report from Reuters. The decision has been attributed to a slowing of demand growth in China, the varying quality of Iraq's "Basra Light" crude, […]
By John Lee. Reuters reports that Kuwait has accepted an Iraqi government request to delay payment of $4.6 billlion in war reparations, pending further discussions in Geneva. The reparations were imposed by the U.N. Security Council following Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, but the country's finances have been strained by the falling oil price and […]
By John Lee. Sharjah-based Dana Gas and its consortium partners, Crescent Petroleum and Pearl Petroleum, is pursuing $100 million (117 billion Iraqi dinars) in payments from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). In a statement to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX), the company said: "The LCIA [London Court of International Arbitration] Tribunal recently ordered the […]
By John Lee. Shares in Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) closed up more than 16 percent up on Tuesday, after the company issued an update on its operations at Shaikan, its key producing asset in Iraqi Kurdistan. The shares had been languishing at new lows earlier in the week, having lost more than three-quarters of their […]
This article was originally published by Niqash. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. Article 140: The Elephant At The Negotiating Table As Kurds and Iraqis Reach Oil Deal Over the past week or so, there have been many congratulatory articles written about the […]
By John Lee. The State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) has denied that it is waging a price war against other oil producers. The company recently slashed price to its Asian customers due to what it described as "changes in the market" but has denied that this was an attempt to undercut other members of the […]
By John Lee. The upstream international vice-president of Malaysia's Petronas, Sharbini Suhaili, has reportedly said that Petronas was the largest international oil company in Iraq, and that the assets returns were promising despite numerous challenges. "There are always challenges. "We can make it work and we are working well with our partners." (Source: AsiaOne) (Picture: Halfaya […]
By John Lee. Iraq is reported to be giving bigger discounts for heavy crude from Basra from January. The State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) recently abandoned plans to split its "Basra Light" grade into two grades, light and heavy. Reuters says this latest move is aimed at pacifying buyers who have had to deal with […]
By Mohammed A. Salih for Al-Monitor. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. The new oil agreement between Iraq’s federal government and the autonomous Kurdish government in the north appears to have left some room for confusion as to what the Kurds should do […]
The Balance Sheet of the Recent IFG-KRG Oil Deal By Ahmed Mousa Jiyad. On 2 December the Council of Ministers-CoM website posted the decisions taken by the Cabinet including one approving the agreement concluded between the Iraqi Federal Government (IFG) and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Soon after its announcement and due to lack of transparency, […]
By Cengiz Çandar for Al-Monitor. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. Adel Abdul-Mahdi, Iraq’s former vice president and current oil minister in Haider al-Abadi's government, spotted me aboard a flight from Beirut to Istanbul. He was in a rush, on his way back […]
By John Lee. Egypt’s state-owned Petroleum Projects & Technical Consultations Company (Petrojet) has reportedly won two contracts in Iraq valued at $142.5 million (166 billion Iraqi dinars). In the first contract, worth $75 million, Petrojet will carry out the first phase of the rehabilitation and upgrade of the current facilities in Basra Gas Company, for […]
