Unemployment "Hits One Million"
Unemployment in Iraq has reached one million, according to a report from AKnews. Dara Hasan, Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, told the agency: "We are working on a plan to bring the level of unemployment down. There are 13 new laws ready to be issued which will protect and stabilized employees' rights in […]
CBI Discusses Dropping Three Zeroes from Currency
Discussions reportedly took place with the Central Bank of Iraq regarding the dropping of the three zeroes from Iraqi currency. MP Aziz Shareef al-Mayahi, a member of Parliamentary Economic Commission, added that detailed discussions were held on Tuesday with economic experts. The commission will study the suggestions in order to reach a suitable response on […]
Washington Window-Dressing and Diyala Federalism
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 Business News. […]
Qualtra the Authorized Agent for Soler & Palau in Iraq
Soler & Palau, the leading Spanish company specialized in ventilation, announced the appointment of Quality Trading Company, Qualtra, as the authorized and only distributor in Iraq for their products that include both industrial and domestic ventilation. The partnership was signed during an official ceremony that was held on Oct 27th in Murica, Spain, between S&P […]
Weekly Security Update for 13th December 2011
Levels of violence fell slightly in Iraq over the past week but conditions are still higher than most weeks in November. Incidents were concentrated in Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk, as well as southern Salah ad-Din province, western Diyala province and central Babil province. At least 35 separate bomb attacks left over 60 people dead and […]
Blackwater Plans to Re-Enter Iraq
ABC News reports that the private security firm once known as Blackwater, wants to re-enter the Iraqi market. The company was forced out of Iraq after a shooting incident in which 17 civilians died, and then changed its name to Xe Services in early 2009. It is now changing its name for the second time […]
KOGAS, Occidental, get Oil from Zubair
Korea Gas Corp (Kogas) said on Tuesday that it will receive 500,000 barrels of crude oil on 15th December as "remuneration fees" and as a return on investment for helping develop Iraq's Zubair oil field. Kogas plans to sell the crude in the international market, according to a report from MarketWatch. Its project partner, Occidental […]
Gulf Keystone Updates on Operations and Sales
Gulf Keystone (GKP) today provided an update on its ongoing exploration and appraisal programme in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which includes the Shaikan block, a major discovery with independently audited gross oil-in-place volumes of between 8 billion barrels to 13.4 billion barrels calculated on the P90 to P10 basis with a mean value of […]
WesternZagros Updates on Kurdistan Operations
WesternZagros Resources Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:WZR) provided an operational update for its drilling operations at Mil Qasim-1 and Kurdamir-2, and the continued ramp up of production from the Sarqala-1 extended well test. Sarqala-1 Extended Well Test Production from the Sarqala-1 extended well test has continued to increase with the addition of tank capacity and the construction […]
Iraq Stock Market Report
Rabee Securities Iraq Stock Exchange (ISX) market report (week ending: 8th December 2011). Please click here to download a table of listed companies and their associated ticker codes. The RSISX index ended the week at ID1,462 / $1,622, +1.5%. The number of weekly traded shares was 7.4bn and the weekly trading volume was ID12.4bn ($10.6mn). […]
Iraq "Won't Cancel ExxonMobil Deal"
Nouri al-Maliki has said that the iraqi Government has no intention to cancel the contract with ExxonMobil to develop the West Qurna 1 oil field. "We haven't cancelled its contract in the south," said Mr. Maliki in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "We are looking for a way for [ExxonMobil's] other contracts in […]
DNO ex-Chairman Tries to Block Merger
DNO International has announced that told investors that Petrolia Invest AS and Erik J. Frydenbø have filed a request for an injunction with the Oslo District Court seeking to block the completion of the merger with RAK Petroleum PCL's MENA operating subsidiaries. Petrolia Invest AS is a subsidiary of Petrolia ASA, a company controlled by […]