Three Years Down, One Year To Go
By Padraig O'Hannelly. What were you doing on this day three years ago? If you're Iraqi and were in the country at the time, the chances are that you were casting your vote in the general election, in which more than 6,500 candidates, representing 86 parties, competed for the 325 seats in parliament. It was […]
Weekly Security Update
By Tom Walker, Director, Assaye Risk COUNTRY OVERVIEW Heightened levels of violence and increased sectarian tensions dominated reporting in Iraq this week. The relative uneasy calm of last week was shattered by an increase in bombings, IDF attacks and assassinations across the country, with the majority of the violence predominantly in the North […]
Iraq Wants to Buy $600m Cargo Scanners
By John Lee. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) has announced that Iraq wants to buy Rapiscan System Vehicles and associated products and services for scanning cargo, in a deal worth $600 million. The items to be purchased include: 90 M45 RAPISCAN Mobile Eagle High Energy Mobile System Vehicles; 40 M60 RAPISCAN Mobile Eagle […]
Genel Sees Pipeline Exports from Kurdistan Next Year
Genel Energy has said it expects to export oil by pipeline from its fields in Iraqi Kurdistan by 2014. The company's CFO, Julian Metherell (pictured), said: "We can expect by 2014 to be accessing the export markets from our major assets, whether that is through Baghdad controlled infrastructure or through Kurdistan." Genel posted full year revenues […]
Cellular Phone Chargers Used as IEDs
The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad warns U.S. citizens that there have recently been incidents of cellular phone chargers being used as Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in Baghdad. The chargers were left in conspicuous areas on roads and, when found and plugged into an outlet, exploded. These incidents have been reported in the Iraqi news. There […]
UK Trade Mission to Erbil and Duhok
The UK's Middle East Association (MEA), in partnership with the Kurdistan Regional Government, will be leading a Trade Delegation to Iraqi Kurdistan from 28th April to 3rd May 2013, visiting Erbil and Duhok. The Kurdistan region remains one of the MEA’s major success stories. Last October we took another large UK trade delegation to the […]
IHEC Publishes Candidate List for Local Elections
By Reidar Visser. 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 […]
PetroChina Considers Join Exxon at West Qurna-1
The Chairman of PetroChina has told Reuters that his company is willing to join Exxon Mobil in the 400,000-bpd West Qurna-1 oilfield project. Jiang Jiemin (pictured) told the news agency: "We are willing to jointly develop the project with Exxon Mobil. Exxon Mobil welcomed our participation and the Iraqi government also supports us joining the […]
Iraq to Cut Basra Crude Exports
By John Lee. Bloomberg reports that Iraq will ship 35 cargoes of crude oil from the Persian Gulf in March, six fewer than last month. About 59.7 million barrels of the Basrah Light blend are to be exported from the al-Basra Oil Terminal (ABOT), equating to 1.93 million bpd, compared with average daily shipments in February […]
New Baghdad-London Flights Massive Boost to UK Business
The Iraq Britain Business Council (IBBC) has welcomed the resumption of direct flights between Baghdad and London after more than 20 years -- the first Iraqi Airways plane will land this evening (March 5th 2013) at Gatwick Airport. Baroness Nicholson, Executive Chairman of the Iraq Britain Business Council, said: "This is terrific news. There are […]
Grand Ishtar Hotel in Baghdad Reopens
Cristal Group, a premier luxury hospitality company in the Middle East, announced the opening of the landmark Ishtar Hotel on Monday, now renamed the Cristal Grand Ishtar Hotel. One of the tallest buildings in Baghdad, Iraq, the 20-storey property features 307 rooms and suites, comprising of 92 Standard king rooms, 111 Standard twin rooms, 62 […]
Bloom Signs Huge Housing Deal
By John Lee. UAE-based Bloom Properties has announced that it has signed a deal to build a massive new housing project on a 20 square kilometer site on the banks of Lake Razaza in Karbala. Construction Week Online reports that the company will develop up to 40,000 housing units in four different districts over a […]