By John Lee. Presidents Maliki and Putin have issued the following statement after their meeting in Moskow: PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Mr Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen, Our meeting with the Prime Minister of Iraq, Mr Nouri al-Maliki, was substantive and constructive. Some significant changes have have been taking place in Iraq since Mr […]
By John Lee. Iraq is considering replacing ExxonMobil at the supergiant West Qurna-1 oilfield with Russian companies LUKoil and Gazprom Neft, according to a report from Nefte Compass. Iraq regards Exxon's contracts in the northern Kurdish region of the country as illegal. But if any agreement was reached at this week's meeting between Iraqi Prime […]
By John Lee. Russia has agreed to sell up to $5bn worth of arms to Iraq. Are the motives behind the deal purely financial, and does it impact the delicate balance of power in the region? Guests: Sabah al-Mukhtar, Jorge Benitez, Dmitry Babich: (Source: Al Jazeera)
By John Lee. A high-level Iraqi delegation visiting Russia has made quite a stir this week: Arms deals worth $4.2 billion were announced, making Russia Iraq's second biggest supplier of arms after the US; A memorandum of understanding was signed for political and diplomatic cooperation between the two countries, with Iraq asking Russia’s help to […]
By John Lee. Iraq is to buy more than $4.2 billion of weapons from Russia under contracts signed in recent months, the Russian government announced on Wednesday, making it the largest weapons supplier to the Middle East country after the United States. While a spokesman for Russia's state-controlled arms exporter, Rosvooruzheniye, said it never discusses […]
By John Lee. Russian President Vladimir Putin (pictured) lobbied Iraq's prime minister on Wednesday to support Russian energy investment, according to a report from Reuters. At talks with Nouri al-Maliki in Moscow, he also called for Russia to strengthen its presence in the OPEC state. Gazprom Neft denied on Wednesday that it had frozen its […]
By John Lee. Iraq's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hoshyar Zebari, and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, signed a memorandum of understanding on Tuesday for political and diplomatic cooperation. Following the signing ceremony, political and technical talks between the two sides took place on ways to develop relations between Iraq and Russia as well as exchanging […]
By John Lee. Both Russia's Gazprom Neft and the Kurdistan Regional Government have denied that the company has frozen projects in Iraqi Kurdistan. "Gazprom Neft is still working on these projects. The company keeps its interest in Kurdistan," a Gazprom Neft source told Reuters. A spokesman for the KRG said Gazprom had informed the KRG […]
Reuters reports that the Iraqi government has approved the exploration, development and production contract for Block 10 in the south of the country. Russia's LUKoil, which already has an interest in the giant West Qurna-2 oilfield, won the deal for the 5,500-square-kilometer Block 10 in Muthanna and Dhi Qar provinces in Iraq's 4th round energy […]
By John Lee. Russia's Pravda reports that Iraq may be about to buy $5 billion worth of MiG fighter jets, Russian helicopters, anti-aircraft missile systems, armored vehicles and other weapons. Between 2008 and 2011 Baghdad purchased Russian weapons worth $246 million dollars, most of which were helicopters. In the same period, deliveries of weapons and […]
By John Lee. Iraq's cabinet has approved three oil and gas contracts awarded to foreign firms in the 4th round energy auction in May. Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh (pictured) said cabinet approved an initial gas exploration contract with Pakistan Petroleum for gas Block 8, another deal led by Russia's Lukoil along with Inpex of Japan […]
By Ahmed Mousa Jiyad. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. The Iraqi Ministry of Oil confirmed in late July that Russia’s Bashneft had accepted the ministry’s maximum acceptable remuneration fee (MARF) for exploration Block 12, which was offered in the fourth bid […]
