Category: Iraq

New Exxon-Turkey contracts bolster Kurdish export plans A night view of the rig drilling ExxonMobil’s Maseif-1 well at the Pirmam block in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region. (PATRICK OSGOOD/Iraq Oil Report) This spring, as U.S. diplomats worked to broker a temporary solution to the oil disputes between Iraq’s federal government and the autonomous Kurdistan region, the largest American oil company was quietly making a contrasting pitch. ExxonMobil was in negotiations with the state-owned Turkish Energy Company (TEC), which was keen to take a stake in the super-major’s six exploration contracts in Kurdistan. But the talks weren’t just about the contracts, according to two people involved in the de… 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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Al-Sadr bloc says to join opposition if Maliki named PM World Bulletin/News Desk The parliamentary bloc of Iraqi Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr said Sunday that it would join the opposition if Nouri al-Maliki assumed a third term as prime minister of Iraq. "Al-Maliki’s two previous terms tell us that he will not succeed in a third," Diaa al-Asadi, the secretary-general of al-Sadr’s Ahrar bloc, told Anadolu Agency. He said al-Sadr’s bloc does not have a personal problem with al-Maliki but with his monopoly over independent agencies affiliated to the Iraqi parliament. Al-Asadi added that by joining in the opposition to al-Maliki, Ahrar bloc will monitor the performance of his government. Iraq’s three main Shiite coalitions, including al-Maliki’s State of the Law and Sadr’s Ahrar, won 161 out of 328 seats in Iraq’s parliament in the April’s legislative election. Al-Maliki’s State of the Law insists that he must lead the […]

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An Iraqi man looks at a destroyed mini bus at the site of car bomb attack in the northern city of Kirkuk on June 4, 2014 Baghdad (AFP) – Three days of major jihadist attacks around Iraq, including on a university, have left dozens dead in a stark display of militant strength and the country’s enormous security challenges. Militants assaulted the city of Samarra, battled security forces in Mosul, took hundreds of hostages at Anbar University in Ramadi and carried out numerous other attacks in Baghdad and elsewhere. Iraq is suffering its worst violence in years, and with none of the myriad problems that contribute to the heightened unrest headed for quick resolutions, the bloodshed is likely to continue unabated. Powerful jihadist group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has been blamed for most of the latest attacks, and is believed to be responsible for much of […]

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RAMADI Iraq (Reuters) – Gunmen occupied a university in Iraq’s western province of Anbar on Saturday, taking hundreds of students and their professors hostage inside the campus, security sources said. After fighting their way past the guards, the militants managed to break into Anbar University in the provincial capital Ramadi overnight and planted bombs behind them to prevent security forces from advancing. Security forces surrounded the university and exchanged fire with militants patrolling the rooftops with sniper rifles. Sources in Ramadi hospital said they had received the bodies of two people, one of them a student and the other a policeman. A professor trapped inside the physics department said some staff whose homes are outside Ramadi had been spending the night at the university because it was the exam period. "We heard intense gunfire at about 4 am. We thought it was the security forces coming to protect us […]

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Kurdish exports in limbo Samir’s Mohammedia refinery in Morocco, upgraded in 2009 by Tekfen Engineering. (Source: Tekfen Engineering) The Kurdish-chartered oil tanker United Leadership is stuck in a purgatory of political and legal controversy, sailing in circles off the coast of Morocco. The autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has not yet offloaded its first-ever ship full of independent pipeline exports, and no money has landed in the KRG’s account in Turkey’s Halkbank, according to two senior Turkish government officials. For the moment, at least, the sale has been prevented by legal and commercial threats fro… 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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Just one day after the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham launched an assault on Samarra and briefly took control of five neighborhoods, the jihadist insurgent group attempted to seize Mosul. Additionally, the ISIS took over Anbar University in Ramadi and held hundreds of students and staff hostage for several hours before retreating. Yesterday evening, hundreds of ISIS fighters "advanced on Mosul from the northwest and deployed in large numbers in the west of the city," Reuters reported . Three Iraqi soldiers and four policemen were killed in the resulting clashes. In southern Mosul, a suicide assault team made up of five heavily armed ISIS fighters attacked a weapons depot and killed 11 soldiers. Some of the members of the suicide assault team detonated their suicide jackets during the raid. And in the nearby village of Muwaffakiya, a minority Shabak community, a pair of suicide car bombs killed […]

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BAQUBA Iraq (Reuters) – A suicide bomber blew himself up at the headquarters of a Kurdish political party in Iraq’s ethnically mixed province of Diyala on Sunday, killing 18 people, local officials and medics said. A further 60 people were wounded in the attack in the town of Jalawla, 115 km (70 miles) northeast of Baghdad, most of them members of the Kurdish security forces who were guarding the office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). “A suicide bomber parked a car packed with explosives near the PUK headquarters and when it went off, he managed to sneak into the building and detonated his vest,” said Khorsheed Ahmed, the chairman of Jalawla city council. Jalawla lies within a band of disputed territory between the Kurdistan region and the rest of the country, and is one of several towns where Iraqi central government troops and Kurdish peshmerga fighters have […]

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GENEVA — The U.N. refugee agency reports growing numbers of Iraqis are fleeing fighting, which is raging in Anbar province.  The UNHCR said the deteriorating security situation in this troubled region is making it more difficult for aid agencies to reach those in need Saturday’ s attack by Iraqi militants on Anbar University in the city of Ramadi is the most recent in three days of violence by Islamist extremists. It follows raids in the cities of Mosul and Samarra.  The deadly assault in Ramadi by militants who killed three guards and seized dozens of students as hostages highlights the chaotic situation enveloping Anbar province for months.   The U.N. refugee agency said the growing violence in this Sunni dominated province is creating a displacement crisis.  It estimates nearly half-a-million people have fled their homes since fighting between Shia-led government forces and Sunni rebels in eastern Anbar escalated in […]

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Militants attacked a university in the western city of Ramadi early Saturday, forcing students and professors to flee gunfire and shelling, while in the capital, at least 48 people were killed by car bombs in an apparently coordinated series of explosions. It was the third day of surging violence in Iraq . Since Thursday, Sunni militants have conducted a series of lightning attacks in major cities, leaving scores of people dead and the government forces scrambling to recover. On Thursday, gunmen carrying the banner of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a Sunni extremist group, swept into the central city of Samarra, briefly capturing police stations, city buildings and several neighborhoods before being driven out. Militant gunmen and suicide bombers have also mounted an offensive in the northern city of Mosul over the last few days, killing civilians and police officers. Government troops have been able […]

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Russian energy company Lukoil said it was including pipeline construction in the terms of its contract for the West Qurna-2 oil field in Iraq. Lukoil President Vagit Alekperov met in Baghdad with Iraqi Oil Minister Abdul Kareem al-Luaibi to sign contract revisions. The addendum for the so-called Tuba-Fao pipeline system calls for the construction of two 75-mile long pipelines and associated infrastructure. The system will link the oil field to an export terminal in Basra, situated along the coast of the Persian Gulf. "The construction of the Tuba-Fao Pipeline will provide for a direct connection between the West Qurna-2 field and the country’s largest export terminal, creating opportunities for further production growth from the field," Alekperov said in a statement Thursday. First oil was produced from West Qurna-2 in March. It has since reached a daily production reach of 120,000 barrels and has an estimated 34 billion barrels worth […]

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