Austria's OMV Strikes Oil in Iraqi Kurdistan
Just days after WesternZagros struck oil at Sarqala, Austria's OMV announces that it too has struck oil at its Bina Bawi block in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. OMV is currently drilling an exploration well (Bina Bawi 3) and encountered hydrocarbons in one of the primary reservoir targets. The well is still being drilled and […]
Siba and Mansuriyah Gas Deals Signed
Reuters reports that Iraq signed the final contracts on Sunday to develop its Siba and Mansuriyah gas fields in deals involving Turkish, Kuwaiti and South Korean companies that will help diversify the country's fossil fuel production. The Korean Gas Corporation [KOGAS] signed the deal for the Akkas gas field earlier in the week. "This is […]
Iraq Issues Arrest Warrant for Bank Chief
Following Thursday's raid on the offices of the Trade Bank of Iraq (TBI), CNBC reports that Iraqi authorities have issued an arrest warrant for the head of the bank, which is under investigation for alleged irregularities. An Iraqi government source said Hussein al-Uzri, president and chairman of the bank, had fled to Lebanon. He reportedly […]
Zubair Oil Storage Depot Bombed
A bomb attack on an oil storage depot in Iraq’s Zubair oilfield set one tank ablaze and halted pumping from the station, sources said on Sunday. AKnews reports that firefighters have got the flames under control, but 27,000 cubic meters of oil have been lost. Four devices were planted, one started the fire, two were […]
Is Iraqiyya a Sectarian or a National Party?
The following article was published on Saturday 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. The opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq […]
Supporting Entrepreneurship in Iraq – The Challenge of Translating Mandates to Action
By T. Keyzom Ngodup, co-founder and Executive Director at Ideas sYnergy, an Iraq based private sector development consulting company. Most development agendas for Iraq putatively support entrepreneurship and the need to support private sector development through its focus on the growing number of unemployed youth in the country. UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) recently […]
Trade Bank of Iraq Under Investigation
Iraq's prime minister ordered a judicial investigation on Thursday into one of the country's biggest banks, the Trade Bank of Iraq, saying it was suspected of committing "violations", according to a report from Reuters. The bank's president and chairman, Hussein Al-Uzri, could not be reached for comment. A British adviser to the bank's board, Sir […]
Hill Intl Shares Jump on $1.5b Iraq Deal
Shares in Hill International (NYSE:HIL) jumped 59% on Thursday following the company's announcement that it has received a contract from TRAC Development Group, a South Korean real estate developer, to provide project management and construction management services in connection with a major housing development in Iraq. In addition, Hill's majority-owned subsidiary HillStone International, LLC has […]
Iraq Govt Allocates $2bn to Low-Cost Housing
The Iraqi government has allocated $2 billion [2.4 trillion Iraqi dinars] to build low cost housing for ‘limited income families’, the country’s Minister of Reconstruction and Housing, Mohammed Al Daraji, said during a press conference Baghdad.. The project should begin in 2012, provided that the Iraqi Cabinet determines the distribution mechanism. The minister said that […]
KRG Cabinet Discusses Allocation of New Budget
Following the Kurdistan Parliament’s approval of the regional budget for 2011, Prime Minister Salih's cabinet met on Tuesday 31 May to discuss distributing the budget efficiently and quickly in order to best serve the people of the Kurdistan Region. The meeting was co-chaired by Prime Minister Salih and Acting Deputy Prime Minister, Karim Sinjari. The […]
Weekly Security Update for 2nd June 2011
Overview Readers of the weekly update will recall that the last entry detailed one of the most hostile seven days since AKE began contributing to Iraq Business News. Fortunately conditions improved over the course of last week. There was a fall (by half) in the number of bombings reported, while shootings declined as well. Kidnap […]
Has al-Maliki Painted Himself into a Corner?
Ninety-five days ago, Nouri al-Maliki set himself, or more specifically, his ministers, a target: They had 100 days to improve public services and root out corruption. Since then, progress has been made in important areas such as the provision of electricity, but many of these projects will take time to implement. In the meantime, protests […]