Category: Iraq

The president of Iraqi Kurdistan on Friday slammed the United States-led coalition against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) for excluding the Kurds from an organizational meeting in London this week, noting that his hard-bitten peshmerga fighters had proven themselves the only capable force on the ground to combat the armed group.  “We were expecting everyone to show respect to the sacrifices made by the people of Kurdistan and its peshmerga [fighters] by inviting a representative from Kurdistan to this event and similar such events,” Massoud Barzani said in a heated statement, as translated by Kurdish Rudaw news. The peshmerga “are the most effective force countering global terrorism today," he added. “It is unfortunate that the people of Kurdistan do the sacrifice and the credit goes to others." It’s not clear why the Kurds were snubbed at the London conference, though many suspect it could simply […]

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LONDON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday that Islamic State’s momentum in Iraq had been halted or reversed and that U.S. weapons for government forces would be arriving very shortly. "In recent months we have seen definitively … momentum halted in Iraq and in some cases reversed," Kerry told a London news conference after a meeting of the U.S.-led coalition fighting IS. "Ground forces supported by nearly 2,000 air strikes now have reclaimed some 700 square kilometers," he said, adding that Iraqi forces would be getting lots of U.S.-made M16 rifles "very, very shortly.” "There is an (arms) pipeline here, and it is working,” he said. (Reporting by Warren Strobel and Kylie MacLellan ; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

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Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi The collapse in the oil price has had “disastrous” consequences for the fight against Isis, Haider al-Abadi, Iraq’s prime minister, has warned world powers. Western leaders meeting Mr Abadi in London on Thursday have promised to increase shipments of ammunition and to consider allowing the Iraqi government to defer millions of dollars of payments for key supplies, in order to alleviate budgetary pressure and ensure the country’s military can continue fighting. More On this topic IN Iraq Baghdad’s budgetary crisis, which has been greatly deepened by the falling oil price, dominated discussions on Thursday between representatives of a coalition of world powers that is working to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant jihadi group, known as Isis. The talks were hosted by Philip Hammond, Britain’s foreign secretary, and led by his US counterpart, John Kerry. “I cannot stress this [problem] any […]

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In spite of still struggling to recover from the 2003 war and the continuing Islamic State (IS) insurgency, Iraq produced a record amount of oil last month, the country’s oil minister announced at the weekend. Unveiling production of 4 million barrels of crude per day in December, Adel Abdel Mehdi told reporters that the total was " a historical figure, and the first time Iraq has achieved this." Speaking at a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart Taner Yildiz in Baghdad, the Iraqi minister added the production increase would "make up" for the recent slump in oil prices. Iraq, where lawmakers are now looking at a 2015 draft budget based on an average of $60 dollars a barrel, depends on crude exports to generate over 90 percent of government revenues. The barrel export count, if confirmed, also trumps estimates of 3.7 million b/d by the International Energy Agency […]

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Iraq, the nation adding more new oil to global markets than any other supplier in OPEC, said it needs to boost production and exports of crude to compensate for collapsing prices. “Because of the new challenges, especially the price of oil, Iraq has to try its best to raise it oil production and exports,” Deputy Prime Minister Rowsch Nuri Shaways said today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Iraq has lost about 50 percent of its revenues because of the slump in oil, Shaways said. An agreement last month between the country’s federal government and the semi-autonomous Kurdish region will boost exports by more than 550,000 barrels a day, he said. The nation is pumping at about 4 million barrels a day, already a record, Oil Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said Jan. 19. Oil slid more than 50 percent since June as the U.S. pumped at the […]

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Oil producers in Iraqi Kurdistan are unrelenting in their goal to boost output even after the collapse in international prices to below $50 a barrel. Genel Energy Plc (GENL) , headed by former BP Plc chief Tony Hayward , is sticking with plans to increase capacity 74 percent to 400,000 barrels a day this year at its Kurdish Taq Taq and Tawke fields. Norway’s DNO ASA (DNO) owns 55 percent of Tawke. “The operational side of the business remains very resilient and very strong and we maintain our production increase targets,” Genel Chief Financial Officer Julian Metherell said by phone from London . “Even at $50 a barrel we are looking at a revenue of $350 million to $400 million.” Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd. (GKP) , another oil producer in the semi-autonomous region, last month raised output by 60 percent to 40,000 barrels a day and sees 70,000 barrels […]

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The Turkish port of Ceyhan has received 450,000 barrels of crude oil from the northern Iraqi province of Kirkuk, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said, Shafaq News reported Jan. 18. The oil is being sold under the supervision of Iraq’s state oil marketing company following an agreement between Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government on oil exports and revenue-sharing .  

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Iraq is pumping crude at a record pace and will continue to boost exports this year amid a global market glut that’s pushed prices down, Oil Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said. “The average for Iraqi crude output is 4 million barrels a day, which is a historical record,” Abdul Mahdi said at a news conference after meeting his Turkish counterpart, Taner Yildiz , in Baghdad. The figure includes output from the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in the north. In December, Iraq pumped 3.35 million barrels daily without the Kurdish region, according to the oil marketing organization SOMO. Iraq plans to boost crude exports to 3.3 million barrels a day this year, including from the Kurdish area, Abdul Mahdi said. Iraq and Turkey agreed to boost Iraqi crude exports from the north via the Turkish port of Ceyhan to 375,000 barrels a day in the coming months, and to as much […]

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Iraq will double exports within weeks from its northern Kirkuk oil fields and continue boosting output further south amid a global market glut that’s pushed prices to their lowest level in more than five and a half years. Crude shipments will rise to 300,000 barrels a day from the Kirkuk oil hub, where authorities are also upgrading pipelines between fields, Fouad Hussein, a member of the Kirkuk provincial council’s oil and gas committee, said yesterday in a phone interview. “There is a need to install a new pipeline network” to increase exports from the area, Hussein said. Kirkuk, which currently exports about 150,000 barrels a day, will boost shipments to 250,000 barrels a day and then to 300,000 “in the coming few weeks,” he said. Iraq, holder of the world’s fifth-largest crude reserves, is rebuilding its energy industry after decades of wars and economic sanctions. The country exported 2.94 […]

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