Category: Iraq

Just before midnight on Friday, Shiite militiamen in eight black S.U.V.’s rolled up to the Baghdad home of an important Sunni politician and abducted him and four of his bodyguards, a brazen move that threatened to further convulse a country already in the grip of a political crisis. For hours at a secret location on Baghdad’s southeastern edge, the bodyguards said, they were beaten with a lead pipe, their tormentors demanding that they admit that their boss, Riyadh al-Adhadh, the president of Baghdad’s provincial council, was preparing to support an invasion of the capital by Sunni militants fighting under the banner of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, who are in control of large amounts of territory in the north and west of Iraq. The episode, which ended with the eventual release of the five men, was a vivid portrayal of what Iraqi politics looks like […]

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Iraqi oil exports were down in June in part because of terrorist activities targeting a northern pipeline, the Ministry of Oil announced. Iraqi Ministry of Oil spokesman Assim Jihad said oil exports from southern ports at 72.8 million barrels for June. No oil marketed by the State Organization for Marketing of Oil left from a northern oil pipeline. "Export from the Kirkuk- Ceyhan pipeline was stopped because of the terrorist actions," he said in a statement Thursday. Iraqi oil exports so far this year peaked at 80 million barrels in May. A Sunni-led insurgency emerged shortly afterward, putting pressure on the central government in Baghdad. In June, the militants with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria said they took control over the Baiji oil refinery north of Baghdad, a facility that feeds the local market. Marketing data show oil exports from the Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline peaked in November […]

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While Iraqi crude represents about 4.4% of world production , or around 3.4 mmbd (5th largest in the world); enabling investors to shrug at any fears that ISIS will spread to the South and interrupt this supply (since it will be ‘contained’); what many do not comprehend is that in such a tight oil market as we currently have, Goldman warns that as much as 60% of OPEC’s expected capacity growth over the next five years to come from Iraq . Production losses so far have been fairly small, and have only been felt domestically. However, the larger impact of the conflict potentially lies in the medium to long term. Goldman explains the long-term implications for Iraq’s oil potential Production losses so far have been fairly small, and have only been felt domestically. However, the larger impact of the conflict potentially lies in the medium to long term. The […]

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A ship carrying crude from Iraq ’s Kurdistan region is off the coast of Florida , with the future of the oil aboard murky because of uncertainty over who has the right to sell it. The United Kalavryta is operated by Unicom Management Services Ltd., said Andy Kendrick, a spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard. It’s scheduled to dock in Galveston, Texas , tomorrow, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government is seeking to sell oil from its territory and claim revenues to help finance its effort for further independence from the national government. Officials in Baghdad have said the country’s oil revenues belong to the central government. “We are aware there is a tanker off the coast of Florida currently, but our policy here has not changed — Iraq’s energy resources belong to all of the Iraqi people,” Marie Harf, a spokeswoman for […]

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Iraqi lawmakers elected a new president on Thursday, hours after an attack on a prisoner convoy just north of the capital left dozens dead in murky circumstances. The violence illustrated the challenges facing the country’s politicians as they debate the thornier question of who will become prime minister. Iraqi security officials said the convoy was escorting prisoners from a high-security prison in Al Taji, about 15 miles north of Baghdad, when it was attacked just after dawn. The area is populated mainly by Sunnis, and the prison’s inmates are mostly Sunnis being held on terrorism charges. In a separate incident, two car bombs ripped through Karrada, a usually bustling district in central Baghdad packed with shops and restaurants, as families gathered to break the Ramadan fast at dusk on Thursday. At least […]

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The United Leadership, a tanker containing about one million barrels of oil from Iraqi Kurdistan, has been stuck at sea for two months. The ship has been mostly anchored off the Moroccan coast, the victim of legal threats against potential buyers. It is mired in a battle between Kurdistan, intent on parlaying the sale of such oil into independence, and the US and Iraqi governments, which are just as determined to prevent that and keep Iraq whole. + But people with knowledge of the situation say the US has signaled that it may stop actively discouraging potential buyers. If these people are right—and the US warnings are tempered—the market could see a fresh supply of 500,000 barrels of oil a day of Iraqi Kurdish oil by the end of 2014 and double that volume a year later. + Kurdistan already operates under relative autonomy but such new oil would probably […]

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Gunmen attacked a prisoner convoy north of Baghdad on Thursday, setting off a gunbattle with troops in which scores of prisoners and eight soldiers were killed, brutally underscoring Iraq’s instability as lawmakers convened to elect a new president. U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon arrived in Baghdad earlier Thursday, urging lawmakers to "find a common ground" so they can address the crisis sparked by the rapid advance of the Islamic State extremist group and allied Sunni militants across much of northern and western Iraq last month. At a press conference with embattled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Ban said Iraq is facing an "existential threat," but one that could be overcome if it forms a "thoroughly inclusive government." "I am deeply saddened by the senseless death of so many Iraqi people," Ban said. He added that political leaders in Baghdad and the largely autonomous Kurdish region have a "clear […]

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Iraqi officials say the death toll from a late night suicide attack targeting a police checkpoint in Baghdad has climbed to 31 people, most of them civilians. The bomber had rammed his explosives-packed car into a checkpoint in Baghdad’s northern neighborhood of Kazimiyah where people lined up in cars for security checks en route to a revered Shiite shrine during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Police officials said Wednesday that along with 31 killed, the explosion also left at least 58 people wounded. Initial reports had 21 killed. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they are not authorized to talk to media. Baghdad has been on edge since the Sunni militant blitz led by the Islamic State extremist group seized large swaths of northern and western Iraq.

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Elite Iraqi soldiers at Iraq’s largest oil refinery are still fending off regular attacks by militants led by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), more than a month Continue Reading

ERBIL, Iraq—Shortly before midnight, an oil tanker set sail from Turkey’s Ceyhan port one day in late May with a historic, $100 million cargo. The tanker, United Leadership, ferried the first major consignment of Kurdish crude into the Mediterranean that night, a million-barrel payload with the potential to shift oil markets and transform the geopolitics of the Middle East. The oil, pumped to Turkey through a newly built pipeline, is part of a gambit by northern Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG, to carve out a nation for Iraq’s 6.5 million Kurds, even as Iraq defends its north against the Jihadist Sunni militant group, the Islamic State. Iraq, with U.S. backing, is treating the oil as stolen goods and an attack on its sovereignty. Iraqi authorities have accused the Kurds of treason, and threaten to sue any buyer of crude taken from Iraq without permission. After zigzagging the Mediterranean […]

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