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Russia's Gazprom Neft has commissioned its 10th production well (P-07) at the Badra oil field.

Together with the other wells at the field, the P-07 well is in free-flow production. With production volumes at the newly launched well now at 6,527 barrels per day, its commissioning has allowed daily production levels at the field to reach 67,000 barrels.

Three other wells were also commissioned at the field earlier this year, collectively producing 24,000 barrels per day. Drilling of four further wells — P-10, BD-2, P-14 and P-19 — is currently ongoing, with construction expected to be completed in early 2017.

Construction of oil and gas infrastructure is also ongoing at the Badra field, with construction and installation works for the commissioning of the first line of an associated petroleum gas (APG) treatment facility now 60-percent complete.

A third process line was constructed at the field’s central processing facility in June, allowing the facility’s potential capacity to increase to the projected level of 115,000 barrels per day.

As at July 20 2016, total cumulative production since the commissioning of the Badra field stands at 2.9 million barrels of oil, of which 1.2 million tonnes has been produced since the start of the year.

(Source: Gazprom Neft PJSC)

By John Lee.

Russia's Uralvagonzavod (UVZ) reportly stopped deliveries of armoured vehicles to Iraq due to delayed payments.

TASS, citing UVZ`s 2015 annual report, stated:

"In 2015, the UVZ Corporation stopped the shipping of the defense production to the No.356 customer (Iraq) due to delayed payments."

(Source: Defense World)

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.

Baghdad’s Maridi market is one of the biggest illegal weapons markets in Iraq. Here civilians and soldiers buy everything from automatic rifles to rocket launchers to fake gun licenses.

In a market in the Baghdad suburb of Sadr City, masked men display their wares on open tables the same way vegetable sellers do in other city markets. But instead of calling out the prices of the goods on show, the men whisper to passers-by so only those closest can hear.

Next to grenades on the tables are rockets, mortars and plenty of other weaponry, with markings that indicate they come from a number of different sources. The men behind the tables wear masks or glasses and hats to hide their faces. Welcome to Maridi market, one of Baghdad’s –if not, Iraq’s - most famous arms markets.

Markets like Maridi sprang up around Iraq after 2003, when former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein lost his iron grip on the country.  There are many such markets around the country, most large cities have them and they are often protected and run by local tribes, which makes them impervious to official security forces. Maridi market is considered the “Iraqi stock exchange” of these unofficial gun markets.

There are a lot of ways in which one can obtain weapons, says Alaa Zamel, a trader in the market. The most significant route is across unguarded border crossings from turkey. The guns and other weapons enter Iraqi Kurdistan in northern Iraq and are then brought to Baghdad; checkpoints don’t seem to be a problem and if they are, some counterfeit ID cards or a bribe will often work.

“Most of the weapons come from military stores, especially those located near the front,” Zamel told NIQASH. “Soldiers who lose their weapons during fighting are not questioned as to why. If a soldier dies fighting, lost weapons are registered in their name. So a lot of the lost weapons are registered in dead soldiers’ names. And those weapons go to the arms dealers.”

While Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve’s air campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant notched more than 26,000 ISIL targets damaged or destroyed as of the end of May, the war against ISIL also proceeds on other fronts.

From its headquarters here, Central Command runs two separate programs in the information war against ISIL. Through the command’s Digital Engagement Team, or DET, and separately through its web operations cell, Centcom’s military, civilian and contract employees work to combat ISIL propaganda in the cyber domain.

Centcom officials spoke to DoD News on background about the counter-ISIL information efforts.

Digital Engagement Team

The 11-member DET includes native-born speakers of Arabic, Urdu, Russian, Farsi, Dari and Pashto. Their job, officials said, is to represent Centcom in those languages and tailor their messaging to regional news cycles: Arabic in Arabic-speaking countries, Dari and Pashto for Afghanistan, Farsi for Iran, Russian for the Central Asian states, and Urdu for Pakistan.

Officials said ISIL’s dominance in the cyber realm has diminished since the group came to prominence in 2014. Now, one official said, “You’re not seeing the YouTube videos of victory parades, of lines of vehicles and black flags anymore.”

Centcom officials said the main “hub” of ISIL’s information campaign remains Twitter, but the group’s reach has been diminished as both Twitter and Facebook “have been pretty aggressive in taking down the accounts that they can recognize or that get reported to them.”

ISIL’s response has been to have supporters create dozens of dormant accounts to fall back on as active accounts are cancelled, a Centcom official said. “The way that they will maintain their audience is either through a hashtag in the description of the account, or the account image will be something like a little brand that people will be able to recognize, and the account will be numbered in such a way that people can sort of figure out -- because it will be sequential in numbers or letters or some way. So people can then very quickly get back to that source.”

By John Lee.

The Chilcot Report into the Iraq War was finally published on Wednesday. The report covers the background to the decision to go to war, whether troops were properly prepared, how the conflict was conducted and what planning there was for its aftermath.

Among the main findings are:

• That the UK chose to join the invasion before all peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted;
• That Intelligence had not established beyond doubt that Saddam Hussein had continued to produce chemical and biological weapons; and,
• That the planning and preparations for Iraq after Saddam Hussein were wholly inadequate.

The full report is 2.6 million words long and would take an average reader weeks to read, but you may find the following resources useful:

Official documents:

• Official Iraq Inquiry site
• Executive Summary
• Full Report
• Search the Report and Declassified Documents

Summaries:

• From The BBC (UK)
• From The Telegraph (UK)
• From The Guardian (UK)
• From The Washington Post (US)
• From Russia Today

Editorials and Opinion pieces:

• From The Telegraph (UK)
• From The Guardian (UK)

By John Lee.

Russia’s Lukoil is in talks with Shell and Total regarding their participation in a petrochemical complex in southern Iraq.

President Vagit Alekperov (pictured) told TASS:

"To create a petrochemical complex - now the negotiations are under way with Shell and with Total. The Iraqi side supports our efforts."

He added that Iraq is ready to start negotiations to improved contract terms.

(Source: TASS)

On the sidelines of the SPIEF'16 - St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani and his delegation met Mr. Alexander Novak, Russian Minister of Energy.

Minister Novka welcomed the participation of Prime Minister Barzani and his delegation at St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, stressing the need to further develop the old relations between the two sides.

He pointed out that the energy sector in Kurdistan Region could be further developed and that Russia wishes that its energy companies contribute to this development.

Prime Minister Barzani thanked Mr. Novka for the warm reception and highlighted the historical ties between the two sides, which he said can be developed in various fields.

He explained the situation in Kurdistan Region, its current financial crisis, the war against ISIS and the issue of accommodating a large number of refugees and displaced persons, who fled ISIS repression and took refuge in Kurdistan Region.

He thanked the Russian government for its support and assistance for the Kurdistan Region in its fight against terrorism.

Prime Minister Barzani offered his government’s support to Russian companies that invest in energy and other sectors in the Kurdistan Region.

He said that despite the situation in the Kurdistan Region, Gazprom Neft continues its operations and that his government will provide the needed facilities in order to expand its activities in the Region.

In an earlier meeting with Prime Minister Barzani, Gazprom Neft Board Chairman Alexander Dyukov expressed desire to expand their activities in the Kurdistan Region.

(Source: KRG)

By John Lee.

Russia’s Lukoil plans to offset the costs on Iraqi fields in August, company President Vagit Alekperov (pictured) told TASS on Friday.

He added that Iraq is ready to start negotiations to improved contract terms.

(Source: TASS)

By John Lee.

The chief executive of Russia's Tatneft has said the company is interested in projects in Iran and Iraq.

Nail Maganov (pictured) was speaking to Reuters on Friday on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

(Source: Reuters)