From Russia With Love
By John Lee. A high-level Iraqi delegation visiting Russia has made quite a stir this week: Arms deals worth $4.2 billion were announced, making Russia Iraq's second biggest supplier of arms after the US; A memorandum of understanding was signed for political and diplomatic cooperation between the two countries, with Iraq asking Russia’s help to […]
Russia Bags $4.2bn Iraq Arms Deals
By John Lee. Iraq is to buy more than $4.2 billion of weapons from Russia under contracts signed in recent months, the Russian government announced on Wednesday, making it the largest weapons supplier to the Middle East country after the United States. While a spokesman for Russia's state-controlled arms exporter, Rosvooruzheniye, said it never discusses […]
Putin Backs Russian Push for Iraqi Oil
By John Lee. Russian President Vladimir Putin (pictured) lobbied Iraq's prime minister on Wednesday to support Russian energy investment, according to a report from Reuters. At talks with Nouri al-Maliki in Moscow, he also called for Russia to strengthen its presence in the OPEC state. Gazprom Neft denied on Wednesday that it had frozen its […]
Iraq asks Russia's Help to Exit Chapter VII
By John Lee. Iraq's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hoshyar Zebari, and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, signed a memorandum of understanding on Tuesday for political and diplomatic cooperation. Following the signing ceremony, political and technical talks between the two sides took place on ways to develop relations between Iraq and Russia as well as exchanging […]
Gazprom Denies Freezing Kurdistan Contracts
By John Lee. Both Russia's Gazprom Neft and the Kurdistan Regional Government have denied that the company has frozen projects in Iraqi Kurdistan. "Gazprom Neft is still working on these projects. The company keeps its interest in Kurdistan," a Gazprom Neft source told Reuters. A spokesman for the KRG said Gazprom had informed the KRG […]
Video: Iraq's Oil Output to Double this Decade
Iraq's oil production is on course to more than double by 2020, the International Energy Agency's Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven tells Reuters: (Source: Reuters)
Weekly Security Update
By Gary Sandiford, Olive Group’s Dubai based assessments manager. Olive Group is a leading provider of security and technology solutions and has operated continuously in Iraq since 2003. Overview Olive Groups Iraq statistics are drawn from multiple sources, including media reporting and direct liaison with in country assets. Included within the statistics are a […]
Iraqi Oil to be Game-Changer for World Markets
Iraq’s energy sector holds the key to the country’s future prosperity and can make a major contribution to the stability and security of global energy markets, the International Energy Agency (IEA) says in a special report of the World Energy Outlook released today – the first time that the IEA has conducted a comprehensive review […]
Iraq Approves LUKoil Development
Reuters reports that the Iraqi government has approved the exploration, development and production contract for Block 10 in the south of the country. Russia's LUKoil, which already has an interest in the giant West Qurna-2 oilfield, won the deal for the 5,500-square-kilometer Block 10 in Muthanna and Dhi Qar provinces in Iraq's 4th round energy […]
France announces Visa Service in Erbil
Welcoming the French Ambassador to the Kurdistan Region on Sunday, Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani discussed the Region’s growing ties with France as well as ongoing events in the broader region. On his first official visit to Kurdistan since the arrival of the new French Consul General, Mr Alain Guépratte, Ambassador Denis Gauer announced the opening […]
US-Iraq Conference on Iraq’s Economic Priorities
On October 4, 2012, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Prime Minister’s Advisory Commission co-hosted an economic conference to discuss a new assessment report evaluating Iraq’s economic priorities. The report was released by USAID’s provincial economic growth project, Tijara, and was commissioned by the Prime […]
Iraq to Boost Oil-Refining Capacity by 23%
Iraq’s oil refining capacity will increase by 23 percent to 760,000 barrels a day by early next year, according to Deputy Oil Minister Ahmad al-Shamaa. In an interview with Bloomberg, the Deputy Minister said that the refinery expansions, particularly of the Daura (Doura) facility in Baghdad (pictured), and the Basra plant in the south, will […]