Category: Iraq

By Kjetil Malkenes Hovland OSLO–Norwegian oil company DNO ASA (DNO.OS) confirmed Wednesday that it has received $30 million from the regional government in Iraqi Kurdistan for oil exports from the Tawke field, boosting hopes that payments will happen on a regular basis. The regional government in Kurdistan said Monday it had authorized payouts of a total $75 million to exporting oil companies, following an announcement in August that it would start paying companies on a regular basis. The previous government payout to oil companies in the region for their exports was in December 2014. The Kurdistan government is struggling to cover its financial needs amid lower oil prices, but acknowledged that it’s unrealistic to expect international oil companies to keep producing and exporting oil at the current pace without predictable payment. Oil exports from Kurdistan are taken to the global market through a pipeline to Ceyhan, Turkey, and is […]

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The Nahr al-Umran gas refinery in northern Basra, July 17, 2009. (ATEF HASSAN/Reuters) Iraq’s Oil Ministry has named new directors general for the state-run South Refineries Company (SRC) and North Gas Company (NGC).*The senior deputy director general of the South Oil Company (SOC), Mahmoud Abdul Amir Hashim, will be the new director general at SRC, according to a Sept. 6 Oil Ministry decree seen by Iraq Oil Report and subsequently confirmed by SOC and SRC employees. Ahmed Fadhil Dehaim, previously the head of the SOC administrative board, will replace Hashim as deputy directo… This content is for registered users. Please login to continue. If you are not a registered user, you may purchase a subscription or sign up for a free trial .

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A worker checks the valve gears of pipes linked to oil tanks at Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, which is run by state-owned pipeline company Botas. (UMIT BEKTAS/Reuters) The Kurdistan region’s Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) will soon make its first payment of 2015 to oil exporting companies.“MNR approved the allocation of $75 million of revenue from the Kurdistan Regional Government’s direct crude oil sales in Ceyhan as payment on account to TTOPCO as operators of the Taq Taq block ($30m), DNO as operators of Tawke ($30m), and Gulf Keystone Petroleum as operators of Shaikhan ($15m),” the ministry said in a statement released Monday.A KRG of… This content is for registered users. Please login to continue. If you are not a registered user, you may purchase a subscription or sign up for a free trial .

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In Dohuk province, a pipe-laying machine stands beside sections of 36-inch diameter steel pipe, which await welding. (PATRICK OSGOOD/Iraq Oil Report/Metrography) Kurdistan’s independent oil exports fell by more than 20 percent in August, to 391,000 barrels per day (bpd), due to pipeline outages in Turkey.After achieving record sales in July, of 492,000 bpd, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) suffered from nine days of pipeline downtime in August, caused mainly by sabotage and smuggling. The outages prevented nearly $250 million worth of oil from being sold, according to an Iraq Oil Report analysis."These recent attacks on the pipeline in Tur… This content is for registered users. Please login to continue. If you are not a registered user, you may purchase a subscription or sign up for a free trial .

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Iraq sees budget pressure from lower crude oil prices. World Bank report finds structural weaknesses persist in the country. Photo by cherezoff/Shutterstock BAGHDAD, Sept. 3 (UPI) — Iraqi revenue generated from oil exports in August was lower than the previous month by nearly $1 billion in part because of low oil prices, data show. The ministry, using data from a federal marketing company, said total crude oil exports for August was 95.4 million barrels. Roughly 98 percent of those exports left the country from southern ports, with the remainder traveling north across the border to a sea port in Turkey . A monthly newsletter from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said the federal government was making a "special effort" to increase exports through southern ports to compensate for delays from inclement weather. The Oil Ministry said southern ports faced short-term "technical obstacles" that interrupted some exports. A spokesman […]

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Flares burn at the Baba Dome of the Kirkuk oil field on Aug. 3, 2009. (AKO RASHEED/Reuters) Akram Fouad Ahmed, a 25-year veteran of the North Oil Company (NOC), has been named by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi as the state-run company’s new director general.He takes over from Safa Abdulrahman Ahmed, the deputy director general of NOC who was temporarily put in charge following the removal of Sameer Salman al-Taie on July 27.Taie has been demoted to engineer and is under investigation for corruption, three senior NOC officials said. One of those officials said Taie is eff… This content is for registered users. Please login to continue. If you are not a registered user, you may purchase a subscription or sign up for a free trial .

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Employees of state-run Iraqi Drilling Company in Basra Jan. 16, 2011. (ATEF HASAN/Reuters) The cash-strapped Iraqi government suffered a sharp decrease in August oil revenues, due mainly to depressed global oil prices as well as a dip in exports from both the south and the north.The federal government earned just $3.874 billion in August, according to the Oil Ministry, down more than 20 percent from the $4.908 billion earned in July.Federal exports averaged 3.079 million barrels per day (bpd) in August – a total of 95.447 million barrels – according to State Oil Marketing … This content is for registered users. Please login to continue. If you are not a registered user, you may purchase a subscription or sign up for a free trial .

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Photo A protest in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square last week. The demands for better public services have grown into calls for broad reform. Credit Karim Kadim/Associated Press BAGHDAD — Surrounded by the clamor of protest — a sea of Iraqi flags, vendors selling coffee and melon drinks, protesters singing the national anthem and railing against politicians — two friends paused and described their dreams. “I want to find a job opportunity,” said one of them, Yasir Abdulrahman, 21, who recently earned an engineering degree but remains unemployed. “I want to build a country. I want an opportunity.” His friend Hussein Ali, 22, quit university to support his family and now works as a taxi driver. He said that even the specter of bombings would not keep him away from the square. “We are only thinking of reforms,” he said. “If you want to change, you have to sacrifice yourself.” For […]

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Kurdish government moves forward with pledge to make regular payments to oil companies working in the region and struggling through the weak crude oil market. Photo courtesy of Gulf Keystone Petroleum. ERBIL, Iraq, Aug. 27 (UPI) — A move to issue regular payments to oil companies operating in the Kurdish north of Iraq should help them endure the market downturn, the government said. The Ministry of Natural Resources of the semiautonomous Kurdish government said it would issue the first batch of regular payments to oil companies by the middle of next month. The decision came after a Kurdish oil council approved the allocation of between $75 million and $100 million of the revenue generated from direct oil sales. The Kurdish government said it recognized that international oil companies are struggling to maintain normal operations because of the lack of payments during a depressed oil economy. "Regular payments will allow […]

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