The latest news from Kurdistan – security updates, reconstruction and more – brought to you by Iraq Business News.
Just over two months after raising more than US$2.0 billion to invest in promising oil and gas projects in developing markets, Vallares PLC ("Vallares" or the "Company") today announces that it plans to merge with Genel Energy International Ltd ("Genel"), the largest oil producer in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Genel has stakes in two […]
Levels of violence fell considerably in Iraq last week, with a drop by half in the number of incidents being reported from the previous week. Violence was concentrated in Baghdad and Mosul whereas there was an improvement in conditions in the provinces of Anbar, Diyala, Salah ad-Din and Ta’mim. The south of the country was […]
Hilton Worldwide is set to open its first hotel in Erbil, the flourishing capital city of Iraqi Kurdistan, under a management agreement with New York based real estate developer The Claremont Group. Comprising of 200 serviced apartments, DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Erbil is expected to open at the end of 2013. The new hotel will […]
Gulf Keystone provided an update on its ongoing exploration and appraisal programme for the Shaikan block in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq on Monday: Shaikan is a major discovery with independently audited gross oil-in-place volumes of between 4.9 billion barrels to 10.8 billion barrels calculated on the P90 to P10 basis with a mean value […]
Hunt Oil Co. was warned before it signed a contract with the Kurdish government in Iraq that it might not be dealing in Kurdish territory, UPI reports. The Dallas-based energy company signed a production-sharing contract (PSC) with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in 2007. It was warned by the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad that the […]
Reuters reports that Iraq's Oil Ministry has excluded American oil firm Hess Corp from competing in its 4th energy auction because the company signed deals with Iraq's northern Kurdish region. As we reported last week, Hess was one of the 41 companies pre-qualified for the auctions, but it was not included on a new list […]
While last week was bloody in Iraq, levels of violence actually fell slightly in the country from the week before. Nonetheless, conditions should still be regarded as hostile, with dozens of people killed in a series of suicide bombings towards the end of Ramadan. As well as several such attacks in the centre of the […]
Maersk Oil, a fully-owned subsidiary of the A.P. Moller – Maersk Group, has acquired a 20% shareholding in HKN Energy Ltd., a subsidiary of U.S.-based Hillwood International Energy, whose sole asset is a licence in Kurdistan Region. The acquisition is a step into the prolific but as yet underdeveloped area of Kurdistan in oil output […]
The Kurdistan Ministry of Agriculture and Water is building three small dams to tackle the water crisis near Koya, Sulaimaniyah. Minister Jamil Suleiman told AKnews that the projects in Bawajan, Qoritan and Timarok villages will cost $552,500. The projects are funded from the 2011 ministry budget, have already been started, and will be completed within […]
Sinan Chalabi, Kurdistan trade and industry minister, laid the foundation stone on Wednesday for a new government-owned food storage warehouse in Erbil AKnews reports that the project, with capital of $1.5 million, will be completed in one year. The building which will store the monthly food-rations of residents will be constructed on 4,000 square meters […]
The current world focus is on Libya, with AKE now ranking Tripoli as being much more hostile a working environment than Baghdad. However, conditions are still fluid and unstable in Iraq, and levels of violence have crept up in the country for the third consecutive week. Dozens of people were killed and hundreds injured in […]
The President of Northern Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, Massoud Barzani, has encouraged leading German companies to invest in Kurdistan, according to Aswat al-Iraq. The President of Kurdistan Region, Massoud Barzani, met with the new German Consul-General in Iraq, Rolf Ulrich, on Tuesday to discuss strengthening relations between the two countries. The German Consul-General said that “he […]
