Category: Iraq

An employee works at the Tawke oil field, which is administered by the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region. (MUHANNAD FALA’AH/Getty Images) Recommend 28 people recommend this. Sign Up to see what your friends recommend. Russia’s Gazprom Neft has halted operations in one of its exploration blocks because of ongoing protests by residents – the latest oil company in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region to face severe disruptions due to local complaints over compensation and land use.In the Halabja block – in the southeastern corner of Kurdistan, near the Iranian border – local farmers started to gather in the small town of Belula on Sept. 25 to protest Gazprom Neft’s activities. They say the oil developm… 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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Kurdish government issues stern warning to oil smugglers tied to Islamic State campaign. UPI/Mohammed al Jumaily ISTANBUL, Turkey, Sept. 30 (UPI) — The Kurdish minister of natural resources issued a warning to the Sunni-led Islamic State there would be no quarter for oil smugglers. Kurdish Minister of Natural Resources Ashti Hawrami said during a World Economic Forum conference in Istanbul authorities arrested seven people tied to oil smuggling near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. Four tankers of oil were seized before entering the Kurdish region of Iraq. The terrorist group in control of parts of Syria and Iraq is said to be generating about $2 million per day on pilfered oil. The Kurdish Ministry of Natural Resources last week said action must be taken to contain oil’s role in IS financing through action by the Kurdish Peshmerga and other forces. With an international coalition behind the fight, Hawrami […]

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BAGHDAD (Reuters) – At least 35 people were killed in a wave of car bomb and mortar attacks in mainly Shi’ite Muslim districts of Baghdad on Tuesday, Iraqi police and medical sources said. It was one of the most violent days the capital has witnessed since U.S.-led forces began bombing Islamic State insurgents in Iraq last month. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks but Islamic State, ultra-radical Sunni Muslim militants who seized swathes of northern Iraq in June, claimed several suicide bombings in the capital earlier this year. Two car bombs exploded in busy streets in the al-Horreyya district, killing 20 people and wounding 35, according to the police and medical sources. There was also a mortar attack in the Sab al-Bour neighbourhood of northern Baghdad that killed five people and wounded 15. Later on Tuesday, at least seven people were killed and 18 wounded […]

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U.S. and Arab warplanes attacked small oil refineries in eastern Syria controlled by Islamic State to undercut the extremist Sunni group’s revenue and impede its mobility, the Pentagon said. As the U.K. prepared for a parliamentary vote tomorrow to authorize joining the broadest Arab-U.S. military coalition since the 1991 Gulf War, aircraft and drones operated by the U.S., Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates attacked 12 “modular” refineries Islamic State uses in its oil-smuggling operations, U.S. Central Command said in an e-mailed statement. “These small-scale refineries provided fuel to run ISIL operations, money to finance their continued attacks throughout Iraq and Syria and an economic asset to support their future operations,” the command said in statement, which used an acronym of another name used to identify the group. Islamic State may have been raising more than $2 million a day from oil sales in Iraq and Syria, paid […]

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Kurdish government calls for military action to cut off oil smuggling. UPI/Mohammed al Jumaily ERBIL, Iraq, Sept. 25 (UPI) — The Kurdish government said Thursday it was calling on military forces to take tough action against oil smuggling from areas under terrorist control. Military air strikes on terrorists groups in Syria Wednesday targeted 12 oil refineries used by Islamic State terrorists to generate as much as $2 million per day. The Kurdish Ministry of Natural Resources said in a statement issued through its official Twitter account action must be taken to contain oil’s role in IS financing through action by the Kurdish Peshmerga and other forces. The Iraqi Ministry of Oil issued an appeal to U.N. member states to take action to prevent the export of smuggled crude oil. The ministry said it was troubled by reports that crude oil taken from territory controlled by the Sunni-led terrorist group […]

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Abadi shakes up military leadership after Anbar massacre Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi (second from left) and Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari (third from left) meeting with Arab leaders and U.S. President Barack Obama and advisors Sept. 23, 2014 in New York City ahead of the annual UN General Assembly. (SPENCER PLATT/Getty Images) Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has fired two top army officials and announced a significant change to the chain of command, after anti-government militants ambushed and killed dozens of Iraqi soldiers Sunday in Anbar province.The move to retire Joint Operations Commander Lt. Gen. Abboud Qanbar and Commander of Ground Forces Lt. Gen. Ali Ghaidan comes a day after Abadi issued "arrest warrants against regiment commanders who lacked due diligence in their performance of their duty in Saql… This content is for registered users. Please login to continue. If you are not a registered user, you may purchase […]

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BASRA, Iraq, Sept. 22 (UPI) — Iraqi Oil Minister Adil Abd al-Mahdi visited oil and natural gas installations in southern Iraq, saying there’d be a rise in production levels that would benefit the people of Iraq. Describing Basra as the economic capital of the country, the minister said oil, the ports and all parts of the energy sector would lift Iraq as a nation. "These are not just promises," he said during Sunday’s visit. "Our aim is to build Iraq." Iraq last week said southern oil exports were 73.6 million barrels for August, down more than 2 percent from the previous month. Oil ministry spokesman Assim Jihad said oil from the southern port city of Basra was sent to nearly three dozen international companies. Kuwait Energy and Dragon Oil, two companies holding assets in Basra, announced the production of 2,000 barrels of oil per day during testing, describing the […]

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BAGHDAD, Sept. 18 (UPI) — Oil ministry spokesman Assim Jihad said Thursday oil exports from the southern port city were sent to nearly three dozen international companies. August exports were down more than 2 percent from the 75.7 million barrels sent from southern port cities the previous month. SOMO is the only entity authorized to export oil from Iraq, the federal government in Baghdad says. The semiautonomous Kurdish government has exported oil taken from its northern provinces at least since May, to the frustration of Baghdad. The Oil Ministry said Thursday exports to Ceyhan from a pipeline from the restive northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk have been idled since May because of terrorist actions. Militants from the Islamic State, referred to often as ISIS or ISIL, claimed in June they took over the Baiji oil refinery , the largest in Iraq. Oil Minister Adil Abdel Mahdi visited the Baiji […]

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ERBIL, Iraq — Gov. Atheel al-Nujaifi wants his province back. Since early June, when jihadist militants swept into Nineveh Province in northern Iraq and seized control of its capital , Mosul, Mr. Nujaifi has been a man without a home. As Iraqi forces and various militias, backed by American airstrikes , have sought to beat back fighters calling themselves the Islamic State, Mr. Nujaifi has pursued his own military response, narrowly tailored toward reclaiming Mosul. He is trying to assemble a 3,000-person militia of Sunni Muslims from Nineveh Province to deploy against the militant group, also known as ISIS. “We want to give a new image to the people: that Mosul will fight ISIS with people mainly from Mosul,” he said. “The people will not accept a return of the Iraqi Army.” There are countless hurdles to this project, not least of which is that the central government in […]

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DUBAI, Sept 17 (Reuters) – A lack of water threatens Iraq’s plans to raise its oil output, boost its stumbling economy and become a leading producer in the region after Saudi Arabia. A multi-billion dollar common seawater injection scheme designed to boost production from the giant export oilfields in Iraq’s south is snarled up in red tape and acrimony. The seawater injection project is core to the development of the southern fields – which account for most of Iraq’s production – and aims partly to flush oil to the surface and overcome declines in production at fields such as Rumaila, West Qurna, Zubair and Majnoon. While the Islamist insurgency has hit oil exports from Iraq’s northern pipeline, the southern oilfields have not been affected by Baghdad’s fight with Islamic State. But the shortage of water is hurting production at two main southern fields: West Qurna-1 and Zubair, official and […]

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