The latest Kirkuk, Iraq Business News – security, land, farming, infrastructure and more – brought to you by Iraq Business News
Lieutenant General Jabbar Yawar, Secretary-General of the KRG Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs and the Spokesperson of the Region’s armed forces, stated that Peshmerga forces (pictured) now control Kirkuk city after the Dijila Operations Command retreated from its position. He said, “Peshmerga forces are in control of the majority of the Kurdistan Region outside of KRG […]
By John Lee. Turkish energy minister Taner Yildiz (pictured) has hinted that his country will not sell oil from the port of Ceyhan until there has been an agreement between Baghdad and Erbil. Minister Yildiz noted that the Turkish Petroleum Refineries Corporation (TPAO) does not currently need to move the Iraqi oil in storage, although the […]
By John Lee. Iraq's northern Kirkuk-Ceyhan export pipeline has been inoperable since March due to sabotage, while attempts to repair it have been curtailed due to ongoing insurgent activity. Deputy prime minister for energy Hussein al-Shahristani (pictured) explained the urgency of the situation, noting that the area was secure enough to repair the pipeline, but […]
By John Lee. On 20th March, 2014, Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani announced a KRG goodwill initiative to make a contribution to Iraq oil export to give the ongoing negotiations with Baghdad the maximum chance of success. The Prime Minister stated that the contribution to oil export from the KRG would be 100,000 barrels per day, […]
By John Lee. Kurdish Regional Government PM Nechirvan Barzani (pictured) has offered to send 100,000 bpd of oil from the Kurdish region through the State Oil Marketing Company, Reuters reports. The move is designed to partially appease Baghdad in the on going and tortuous dispute over oil revenues and exports to Turkey. Currently over 1 million […]
By John Lee. Pumping along the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline has reportedly been halted since the beginning of March due to sabotage, and it is unclear when exports can re-start. Oil volume through the pipeline dropped almost a quarter in January (compared to January 2013), having already fallen by 37 percent in 2013 compared to 2012, according […]
By John Lee. Surprising skeptics, the International Energy Agency has announced that Iraq's oil exports have hit 3.6 million bpd, a record 30 year high, The Wall Street Journal reports. Previously exports were falling due to export bottlenecks, bad weather and extensive work on infrastructure, while some northern areas such as Kirkuk were adversely affected by insecurity. […]
This article was originally published by Niqash. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. For Power and Money: Kirkuk Extremist Groups’ Play Dirty Tricks on One Another Kirkuk security forces have recorded 21 incidents of extremist violence and around 30 deaths in the […]
By John Lee. Reuters reports that Iraqi Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi [Elaibi] and BP CEO Bob Dudley (pictured) paid a visit to Kirkuk on Wednesday to win over the local government before the company starts work on this controversial northern oilfield that straddles the border with autonomous Kurdistan. Baghdad signed a deal in early […]
By John Lee. Andrei Kuzyayev [Andrey Kuzyaev] (pictured), head of Lukoil's overseas operations, has said that Lukoil plans to reach commercial levels of oil production at West Qurna-2 in the first quarter of 2014, and is interested in participating in the Kirkuk oilfield in northern Iraq. He told Reuters: "There are no infrastructure risks [in […]
By John Lee. Oil minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi [Elaibi] (pictured) told Reuters on Wednesday that Baghdad signed a deal with BP "about 10 days ago" to revive the northern Kirkuk oilfield. The agreement allows BP to negotiate access to significant reserves in the north in return for helping Baghdad arrest a huge decline in output […]
By Reidar Visser. 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. Somewhat in […]
