Iraq Business News brings you the latest information on developments and opportunities in the oil and gas industry in Iraq.
The KRG Oil and Gas Council held a meeting last week to discuss fuel shortages. The meeting culminated with the announcement of four important steps aimed at combating fuel shortage in the Kurdistan Region. The meeting was headed by KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani and Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani. In the meeting, also attended […]
By John Lee. The pipeline that will carry natural gas from Iran to Iraq will be completed by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21, 2014), according to a report from Iran's PressTV. The Managing Director of the Iran Gas Engineering and Development Company, Alireza Gharibi, said 7 million cubic meters […]
The eighth cabinet of the Kurdistan Regional Government was announced at a special session of the Kurdistan Parliament held on 18 June 2014. Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani, and all cabinet ministers were sworn into office. In a speech outlining the programme of the eighth cabinet, Prime Minister Barzani stated that […]
By Ruth Lux, Managing Director of political risk consultancy Strategic Analysis. The security situation in Iraq has significantly declined over the last week. Mosul and Tikrit fell to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), an al-Qaeda off-shoot, and Tal Afar, in the Nineveh province, was seized on Monday. Additionally, Baquba, only 37 […]
By John Lee. Gazprom Neft has said it has no problems in Iraq and does not feel that its work in the country is under threat. Deputy CEO Vadim Yakovlev (pictured) told reporters on Tuesday: “Of course we are worried because we operate there and our people are still working ... [but] we do not […]
By John Lee. The key to Iraq's unity is power-sharing, revenue-sharing and the implementation of the Constitution, Dr Ashti Hawrami (pictured), the Kurdistan Regional Government's Minister of Natural Resources, told a London conference yesterday, saying: “The policies of centralisation and discrimination have put Iraq's future at risk ... As of last week (following the crisis […]
By John Lee. Islamist militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS, ISIL) have attacked Baiji [Bayji] oil refinery (pictured), 155 miles north of Baghdad. A security official told Associated Press that the attack on Iraq's largest refinery began late on Tuesday night and continued into Wednesday, with militants targeting it with […]
By John Cookson. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. Traders will tell you the price of oil is a speculative market based on expectations. Most of Iraq's oil production is from the mega fields in the south, far from any fighting. But […]
By John Lee. Reuters reports that Iraqi Kurdistan is ramping up independent oil exports, with a third tanker of crude scheduled to leave the Turkish port of Ceyhan on 22nd June. The supply of oil through the Kurdistan Regional Government's new pipeline to Turkey has continued uninterrupted, despite the escalating violence in northern Iraq. Speaking […]
By John Lee. Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) has given an update on its production operations at Shaikan in Iraqi Kurdistan, its key producing asset. The company's shares closed up 1.9 percent on Friday. Production Development plans to increase Shaikan production capacity to 40,000 gross barrels of oil per day ("bopd") by year-end 2014 are on […]
By John Lee. Oil Minister Abdul Kareem al-Luaibi [Elaibi] (pictured) said on Wednesday that Iraq's southern oil export facilities were secure, with shipments now running at around 2.6 million bpd, according to Reuters. Speaking to reporters ahead of an OPEC meeting in Vienna, he said: "All our exports now are from the Basra terminal in […]
LUKOIL Overseas (the Operator of LUKOIL's overseas upstream projects) has informed Iraq’s Ministry of Oil that it has fulfilled its contractual obligations for first commercial production at West Qurna-2. LUKOIL, the Operator of the West Qurna-2 project, successfully maintained an average daily production of at least 120 thousand barrels for 90 days, entitling it to […]
