By John Lee. The Kurdistan Regional Government is reported to have signed new agreements with Gazprom Neft, the oil-producing subsidiary of Russian gas monopoly Gazprom. "We are satisfied with Gazprom Neft's work in the region. New agreements have been reached with this Russian company in recent days," KRG President Masoud Barzani (pictured) was quoted as […]
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov hosted President Masoud Barzani in the Russian Foreign Ministry on Thursday for discussions on "bilateral relations" and the situation in Iraq and Syria. In today’s meeting, both sides emphasized the need to strengthen relations between Russia on the one hand and Iraq and the Kurdistan Region on the other. Foreign […]
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has participated in the first session meeting of the Arab - Russian Cooperation Forum in Moscow. The session was chaired by the Russian Federation Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov. Present at the meeting were Hoshyar Zebari, Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs as Iraq is current President of the Arab Summit, […]
President Masoud Barzani departed from Erbil International Airport on Tuesday with a high-level delegation to make his first official visit to the Russian Federation. During the visit, President Barzani is expected to meet senior Russian officials to discuss a number of important matters, including relations between the Kurdistan Region and the Russian Federation, political developments […]
By John Lee. The Chairman of Russia's LUKoil, Vagit Alekperov, has signed an amendment to the contract to develop the West Qurna-2 oil field with the South Oil Company (SOC). According to the amendment, the 18.75 percent share of the project formerly owned by the Norwegian company Statoil is to be taken over by LUKoil, […]
By John Lee. Iraq and the Russian state oil producer Gazprom Neft have awarded an $879 million contract to South Korea's Samsung Group to develop the Badra oil field in eastern Iraq. Samsung will design and build phase two of a central processing facility (CPF) for oil production in the field, which is expected to […]
By John Lee. According to a report from NINA, the Iraqi government decided today (Thursday) to end the official contract for Ali al-Dabbagh as the Iraqi government Spokesman. Dabbagh stated earlier: "I'm the first one who alerted the Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to the possible existence of suspicions of corruption regarding arms deal with Russia." […]
By John Lee. Reuters reports that LUKoil, Russian’s biggest non-state oil producer, which is believed to be considering buying ExxonMobil's stake in the West Qurna-1 oil field, has bought oil from Kurdistan in defiance of Baghdad. Baghdad has long insisted it has the sole right to export oil, but LUKoil's Geneva-based trading arm Litasco has […]
By Amir Hassan Fayad. 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. Iraq and Russia have been getting cosy lately with high ranking visitors and multi-billion dollar arms deals. Is this friendship just a business opportunity? Related […]
By John Lee. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh (pictured) has announced that the country is to renegotiate the recent $4.2-billion weapons deal with Russia: "It will renegotiate with Russia to put an end to suspicions of corruption in the weapons deal", he said. The turnaround follows the ouster of Russia's defense minister earlier this week, […]
By Abdul-Khaleq Dosky. 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. The tension between Iraqi Kurdistan and the leadership in Baghdad doesn’t seem to have diminished lately. NIQASH asked the Iraqi Kurdish why the Russians and Exxon […]
By John Lee. The Iraqi Government has reportedly told Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom, to abandon oil deals in Kurdistan or face losing the lucrative Badra oilfield contract. The field, which is estimated to have reserves of 100 million barrels, is being developed by Gazprom (30%), Korea’s KOGAS (22.5%), […]
