Former AWB Boss Fined in Oil-for-Food Scandal
By John Lee. The former managing director of Australian wheat exporter AWB has been fined 100,000 Australian dollars ($106,000) and banned from being a company director for two years for his role in paying kickbacks to Iraq's former dictatorship under the discredited UN oil-for-food program. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the breaches related to […]
GKP Declares Commercial Discovery at Shaikan
By John Lee. Shares in Gulf Keystone (GKP) were up more than 5% on Friday following the company's submission of a 'Declaration of Commercial Discovery' relating to its Shaikan Block in Iraqi Kurdistan. Todd Kozel (pictured), Gulf Keystone's Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer commented: "Declaration of Commercial Discovery is an important milestone for Gulf […]
New Iraqi Oil Prices for September
By John Lee. Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO) has adjusted its official selling prices for its Basra Light and Kirkuk crude grades for September. In common with some other countries, Iraq’s oil is priced relative to regional benchmark prices: For shipments to US, contracts are priced are relative to the Argus Sour Crude Index […]
Asiacell Approved for Stock Exchange Listing
By John Lee. Asiacell has become the first mobile operator to reach an initial agreement to list on the Iraqi bourse, according to a report from Reuters. The company, part of Qatar Telecommunications, along with its two rivals Zain Iraq and Korek, were required to float their shares on the stock market as a condition […]
North Bank Numbers give Hope to Iraqi Economy
By Sherif Salem. The process of capital formation is underway in Iraq, and that is good news for the grass roots economy. At least that’s what stock market-listed North Bank’s latest earnings results indicate. Iraq’s gross domestic product has been growing at a rapid pace, but that’s mostly due to rising oil production and robust […]
Barzani: Kurdistan will be Self-Sufficient in Fuel and Electricity
By John Lee. The Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Nechirvan Barzani (pictured), has said that the policy of his government is to achieve self-sufficiency in fuel and electricity generation. He said that the Baghdad government is cutting Kurdistan's share from the fuel produced at the Iraqi refineries. "Therefore, in these two fields […]
Iraqi Government Acts to Defuse Power-Cut Rage
By Abu Iraq and Khalid Waleed. This article was originally published by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, iwpr.net, and it is reproduced by Iraq Business News with permission. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News Iraq's government sacked a senior energy […]
KAR Group to Expand Kalak Refinery
By John Lee. KAR Group, an Iraqi integrated oil and gas company, has announced the third expansion of their Kalak Refinery to 185,000 barrels per day (BPD). Process units and utilities are being provided by Ventech Engineers LLC of Pasadena, Texas. Ventech has provided modularized crude-distillation units, naphtha hydrotreaters, catalytic reformers, isomerization units, demercaptanization systems, […]
UK’s Pell Frischmann Wins Anbar Water Project
Pell Frischmann has won a contract in Iraq for the design of a $85 million water project in Anbar province, according to a report from Bloomberg. The U.K.-based consulting company will designs a new water station in Hadeetha (Haditha), which will pump 4,500 cubic meter of water an hour to surrounding towns, within two years. […]
Jordan to Select Company to Transport Iraqi Crude Oil
By John Lee. A spokesman for Jordan's Energy Ministry says the Ministry will choose a company this month to transport 10,000 bpd of Iraqi crude oil b truck. Fayez Abu Gahud told Bloomberg: “The tenders committee is currently looking into financial bids submitted to the energy ministry and will announce the winning bidder as soon […]
165 New Companies Registered in July
By John Lee. AIN reports that Iraq's Ministry of Trade has registered 165 new companies in July. The Director General of registrations at the Companies Department, Feryal Akram Abdullah, told the news agency that: ''About 29 offices belonging to foreign companies have been registered as well as five branches for various foreign companies.'' (Source: AIN)
A Good Month for Iraqi Oil Shares
By John Lee. Like good comedy, the secret of good investment is often said to be timing. Someone buying shares at the end of June in Heritage Oil, which has interests in Iraqi Kurdistan, may have had reason to be concerned if they planned to sell shortly afterwards, as the shares were suspended in early July […]