Moody’s Boosts Petronas Rating on Iraq Exposure
Energy Risk reports that Moody's has raised its rating of Malaysian state-owned Petronas's A1 senior unsecured debt from negative to stable, despite the group's riskier business profile following a major acquisition of a large oil field in Iraq. "We expect the company's $20 billion capital expenditure for the Iraqi fields to be spread out over […]
Oil Espionage: Laptops Stolen
An official security source in Iraqi Oil Intelligence said on Tuesday that four laptop computers were stolen from the legal department of the South Oil Company and were smuggled into Kuwait, and that the company didn’t take any legal action against those involved. According to the report from AK News, the source, who preferred anonymity, […]
New Investment Opportunities in Dhi Qar
The head of the investment and strategy committee of Dhi Qar provincial council, Ahmad Taha, announced that a new round of investment licenses will be awarded soon to foreign and Arab firms. The licensing round will include waste recycling, environment, electricity and gas stations projects. Al SumariaTV also reported that "oil refineries will be established […]
New Electricity Projects Throughout Iraq
The Iraqi Industry Ministry has ordered its factories to work on generating electricity required for production, to minimize the load on the national electricity network. The ministry noted that power shortage is causing losses to its factories. “The ministry has issued contracts to purchase large generators for this purpose,” the ministry said in a press […]
Turkish Companies' Assets in Kurdistan Exceed US$ 600 Million
A source from Kurdistan Investment Board declared that the Turkish companies' assets in Kurdistan Region amount to US$ 621 million. Confirming the figure, Haydar Mustafa, the Director General of Investigation & Information in the Board, told AKnews on Wednesday that although there are many Turkish companies operating in the Region the majority of them are […]
Bureaucracy Delays Investment - NIC
"Investment in Iraq is weakened due to delays in issuing investment licences for projects, and due to the bureaucracy that is involved; the Iraqi economy needs to change from a centralized economy to a free one", said Kamel al-Zaidi, a member of the Investment committee, on Tuesday. The process is too cumbersome and is not […]
Baghdad Mayor Calls Investors to Start Projects They Contracted
An official source in the office of Baghdad's Mayor said on Sunday that the Mayor had highlighted the importance of implementing the investment projects that have been contracted, stressing the need to expedite the granting of investment licences. "A meeting that included Baghdad's Mayor, Saber Al-Issawi, a number of ambassadors and businessmen took place to […]
Weekly Security Update
National Overview Nationally recorded incident levels stayed at 108 this week, a level consistent with the most reporting periods throughout the year. There was little variation in week on week incident numbers for each of the regions. The north central and Baghdad regions continued to account for the majority of hostile incidents. The north central […]
Before It's Too Late ...
Markets hate uncertainty, but history has shown us that times of uncertainty create the greatest opportunities. Warren Buffett's famous saying, “be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful”, is true whether referring to the stock market or to risk-taking in general. And Iraq is giving us plenty of risk and […]
Rumaila Drilling Spree
Yesterday we reported that Michael Townshend, President of BP Iraq, was planning to increase production at the supergiant Rumaila oilfield by 10% over the next six months; today we can give you details of more than 100 new wells to be drilled at the field by the end of next year. Three international service companies, […]
Exxon Says Iraq Delay Not Affecting West Qurna
ExxonMobil (XOM.N) and its partner Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) have not been affected by a delay in the formation of Iraq's new government, and work on their West Qurna Phase One project is moving ahead, an Exxon executive said on Monday. Exxon expects to tender later this year to drill new wells in the supergiant […]
Gazprom to Drill New Wells in Badrah
A group led by Gazprom Neft aims to start drilling in Iraq's Badrah oilfield next year as part of its plan to reach 15,000 barrels per day by the last quarter of 2013, a company executive said yesterday. Gazprom and its partners plan to issue a tender this month to drill three to four new […]