Category: Iraq

LONDON—Iraqi Kurdistan’s oil minister said Tuesday that the Kurds’ fight against Islamic State militants risks being undermined by delays in oil payments from Baghdad for Kurdish crude. But an official from the Iraqi central government said Baghdad disagreed with the Kurds’ estimates of payments due. Baghdad and Kurdistan reached an agreement in December 2014 , allowing the Kurds to export 550,000 barrels of oil a day under the central government’s supervision in exchange for receiving 17% of the national budget. “The fight against ISIS across several thousand kilometers of front line cannot happen if you don’t have the economic means to do it,” Ashti Hawrami, the minister for natural resources of the Kurdistan Regional Government, told a conference here. “When we have three months of peshmergas [Kurdish fighters] not being paid, it’s very difficult to see how this can be sustained,” he added. While Islamic State has continued making […]

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Iraqi oil conference opens in London amid looming threat from the terrorist group calling itself the Islamic State, which now controls Sunni-parts of the country. Photo by Frontpage/Shutterstock LONDON, June 9 (UPI) — Good governance and sweeping national security are integral parts of the investment future in the Iraqi oil sector, the British energy minister said. An Iraqi oil exhibition opened this week in London. British Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom said that although British energy companies are playing an active role in Iraq, security and cooperation across the entire country is needed to improve the investment climate . "In Iraq, lower oil prices in particular have highlighted some weaknesses in economic institutions," she said. "Tackling these, along with some of the political divisions that risk undermining Iraq’s energy potential, is of great importance." British energy companies were among those last year that evacuated non-essential staff from Iraq amid the […]

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Oil producers in Iraqi Kurdistan will have to close operations if they don’t receive agreed export payments, according to the regional authorities. “We need to stabilize the payment situation,” Ashti Hawrami, natural resources minister for the Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG, said Tuesday in London. “We can’t keep saying to oil companies: ‘Give us one more month.’ Eventually this will collapse around us. We need more money.” Kurdish authorities in December resolved months of feuding with Iraq’s central government over who had rights to export crude from the semi-autonomous region. Nevertheless, payments to producers have remained haphazard as the two sides continue to debate terms, while a slump in oil prices and the exorbitant cost of fighting Islamic State militants have reduced available funds. Norwegian producer DNO ASA said Tuesday that it can’t sustain investment and production levels if debts to the company aren’t paid. Genel Energy Plc and […]

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WASHINGTON—The Iraqi government is making progress in its efforts to hold on to the country’s largest oil refinery and to retake a nearby city controlled by Islamic State fighters, the Pentagon said Monday. An Iraqi Shiite fighter battles Islamic State for the city of Beiji. Iraqi security forces, working with Shiite militias, have broken through a defensive line controlled by Islamic State, allowing Baghdad to resupply its forces fighting for the Beiji oil refinery over land, said Col. Steve Warren, the Pentagon spokesman. That has allowed Iraqi security forces to mark progress against Islamic State forces mounting an assault on the refinery. Shiite militias, fighting under the banner of the Popular Mobilization Force and largely controlled by the Iraqi government, also are leading an offensive to retake the nearby city of Beiji, Col. Warren said. Those forces, along with some Iraqi forces, have moved into Beiji and begun to […]

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Loading arms at the terminal for Iraqi crude exports at the Turkish port of Ceyhan. (STAFF/Iraq Oil Report) The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has received 508.8 billion Iraqi dinars ($424 million*) from Iraq’s federal government for the month of May, as the two sides struggle to sustain a fraught oil export and revenue sharing agreement."This is the total allocation from Baghdad to KRG for May salaries, of which 34 billion Iraqi dinars ($28.3 million*) is for Peshmerga forces," said Iraq’s Deputy Finance Minister Fazil Nabi.Ahmed Abdulrahman, the spokesman for the KRG’s Ministry 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 2006, Joe Biden, Les Gelb and many others proposed plans to decentralize power in Iraq. Biden, then a United States senator from Delaware, Gelb and others recognized that Iraqi society was fracturing into sectarian blocs. They believed that governing institutions should reflect the fundamental loyalties on the ground. According to the Biden plan , the central Iraqi government would still have performed a few important tasks, but many other powers would have been devolved to regional governments in the Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish areas. The administration of George W. Bush rejected that federalist approach and instead bet on a Baghdad-centric plan. The Iraqi prime minister at the time, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, and his band of Shiite supremacists enflamed sectarian tensions even more, consolidated power, excluded rivals, alienated the Sunnis and Kurds and drove parts of the opposition into armed insurrection. The Obama administration helped oust Maliki and replace […]

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Photo The Tadmur prison in Syria after it was blown up by ISIS. Credit via Associated Press BEIRUT, Lebanon — Days after seizing the Syrian desert city of Palmyra, Islamic State militants blew up the notorious Tadmur Prison there, long used by the Syrian government to detain and torture political prisoners. The demolition was part of the extremist group’s strategy to position itself as the champion of Sunni Muslims who feel besieged by the Shiite-backed governments in Syria and Iraq . The Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has managed to advance in the face of American-led airstrikes by employing a mix of persuasion and violence. That has allowed it to present itself as the sole guardian of Sunni interests in a vast territory cutting across Iraq and Syria. Ideologically unified, the Islamic State is emerging as a social and political movement in many Sunni areas, filling […]

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Members of Kataeb Hezballah, standing in front of their militia flag, distribute food for other fighters and displaced people in the desert near Ramadi city east of Anbar province on May 28, 2015 in Anbar, Iraq (AHMAD MOUSA/The Washington Post via Getty Images) Months before the so-called Islamic State (IS) organization chased pro-government forces out of Ramadi, Anbari tribal fighters throughout the province were raising alarms.On a practical level, the problem was that pro-government forces were not numerous or strong enough to defend the areas they still held while also wresting territory back from IS militants.On a strategic level, the problem was that Iraqi military planners were failing to recognize the limitations of their forces, launch… 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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The Ministry of Natural Resources in Iraq’s Kurdish region has denied reports that it ceased oil shipments to the national government’s State Oil Marketing Organization, Shafaq News reported June 3. Earlier in the day, Reuters had reported that Arbil was no longer transferring crude to the state-owned company. The Kurdish regional government confirmed that it was abiding by its previous energy agreement with Baghdad, which dictates that it export an average 550,000 barrels per day through Baghdad. The semi-autonomous region has made moves toward energy independence in the past, but the shared opposition to the Islamic State has brought Kurds into closer cooperation with the Iraqi government. Stratfor provides global awareness and guidance to individuals, governments and businesses around the world. We use a unique, intel-based approach to analyze world affairs. Copyright © 2015 Stratfor Global Intelligence, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: 221 West 6th Street Suite […]

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Iraqi Minister of Oil Adil Abd al-Mahdi (R) takes a tour of Basra Gulf export platforms on Sept. 21, 2014, (HAIDAR MOHAMMED ALI/AFP/Getty Images) Iraq notched its third straight record-setting month of oil exports in May, and is poised for further growth in June due to an overhaul of how oil is blended and marketed in Basra.May exports averaged 3.145 million barrels per day (bpd), according to the Oil Ministry, up from 3.077 million bpd in April. The average sale price was also higher – $55 in May compared to $51 in April – and revenues rose from $4.8 billion to more than $5.3 billion.The export gains could continue.As 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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