Category: Iraq

Because of chronic setbacks at the Fao storage depot, Iraq will fail to meet its export potential until at least 2018, preventing the sale of billions of dollars worth of oil. As Iraq and its oil company partners spend billions of dollars to boost production capacity and exports, one key bottleneck is threatening to decimate their return on investment and shut in hundreds of millions of barrels of oil over the coming years.The coastal Fao storage depot in Basra is supposed to serve as a critical way station for crude traveling between oil fields and export terminals, storing oil and pumping it offshore to ensure continuous field production and fully maximized tan…

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Iraq oil production was higher this year than since before Saddam Hussein took power. The problem: getting it out of the country. Iraqi oil fields pumped 3.6 million barrels of crude a day on average in February, 50% more than four years ago. That beat—if only for a month—the country’s annual-output record, 3.5 million barrels a day, in 1979 during Iraq’s petroleum heyday. Companies including PLC, Royal Dutch Shell PLC and ExxonMobil Corp. have invested billions of dollars to revive oil fields battered by decades of war, sanctions and neglect. But Iraq’s government has been slow to modernize the infrastructure to move that oil from wells to tankers. With such ancient pipes and paltry storage, even minor disruptions—routine pump maintenance, say, or a windy day in the Persian Gulf—can force companies to shut down wells. Violent attacks on infrastructure and personnel are still frequent. And bureaucracy and corruption have […]

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Suicide bombings and other attacks across Iraq killed at least 33 people and wounded nearly 80 more on Monday, officials said, the latest in an uptick in violence as the country counts down to crucial parliament elections later this month. Over the past year, violence has surged in Iraq to levels unseen since 2008. The increase in deadly shootings and bombings has become the Shiite-led government’s most serious challenge as the nation prepares to head to the polls on April 30 – the first vote in Iraq since the U.S. army withdrawal in 2011. Monday’s deadliest attack took place south of Baghdad in the town of Suwayrah, where a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a police checkpoint, killing 12 people – five policemen and seven civilians. A police officer said 19 people were wounded in the attack. In the nearby town of Madain, about […]

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Iraqi police say two bombs planted on a street full of shoppers in Baghdad have killed four people and wounded eight. They say the explosions took place in the capital’s predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Dora on Saturday morning. Later, police said a roadside bomb killed two soldiers on patrol and wounded five people in Tarmiyah, 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Baghdad. Health officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters. No one immediately claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attacks, but Sunni insurgent groups have stepped up attacks across the country since last year in hopes of undermining the Shiite-led government. The uptick in violence comes as Iraqis prepare to hold a crucial parliamentary election on April 30.

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Suspected Sunni Muslim militants killed at least 30 people around Iraq on Thursday including 12 soldiers in an assault on a remote army base in the north, deepening insecurity with a national election just two weeks away. Sectarian bloodshed has increased since the Shi’ite Muslim-led Baghdad government began an offensive against insurgents, some of them affiliated with […] Raheem Salman of Reuters reports : Suspected Sunni Muslim militants killed at least 30 people around Iraq on Thursday including 12 soldiers in an assault on a remote army base in the north, deepening insecurity with a national election just two weeks away. Sectarian bloodshed has increased since the Shi’ite Muslim-led Baghdad government began an offensive against insurgents, some of them affiliated with al Qaeda, dug in around Falluja and Ramadi in the western province of Anbar. […]

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Iraqi Sunni masked protesters burn tires to block the main highway to Jordan and Syria, outside Fallujah, Iraq, on Dec. 30, 2013. Violence has returned to Iraq’s Anbar province, with discontented ordinary Sunnis joining forces with al-Qaida-linked militants battling the Iraqi government. AP Violence has reignited in western Iraq, with Islamist fighters taking over much of Anbar province three months ago. A renegade al-Qaida group has set up its headquarters in Fallujah – the city where hundreds of U.S. soldiers died a decade ago, trying to wrest it from insurgent control. But this time, the enemy isn’t the U.S. and it’s not just extremists fighting. Ordinary Sunnis in Anbar, furious at what they call years of discrimination by the Shiite-dominated government, have joined the militants’ battle against the Iraqi army. There’s another difference: This group has better training and weapons , drawing strength and fighters from the […]

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Iraqi Sunni masked protesters burn tires to block the main highway to Jordan and Syria, outside Fallujah, Iraq, on Dec. 30, 2013. Violence has returned to Iraq’s Anbar province, with discontented ordinary Sunnis joining forces with al-Qaida-linked militants battling the Iraqi government. AP Violence has reignited in western Iraq, with Islamist fighters taking over much of Anbar province three months ago. A renegade al-Qaida group has set up its headquarters in Fallujah – the city where hundreds of U.S. soldiers died a decade ago, trying to wrest it from insurgent control. But this time, the enemy isn’t the U.S. and it’s not just extremists fighting. Ordinary Sunnis in Anbar, furious at what they call years of discrimination by the Shiite-dominated government, have joined the militants’ battle against the Iraqi army. There’s another difference: This group has better training and weapons , drawing strength and fighters from the […]

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Officials in Iraq say a bomb planted on a street full of shoppers in the capital, Baghdad, has killed three people and wounded five. Police officers say the explosion took place in the capital’s predominantly Shiite neighborhood of al-Ameen on Friday morning. Health officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to journalists. No one immediately claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack, but Sunni insurgent groups have stepped up attacks across the country since last year, in a bid to undermine the Shiite-led government. The uptick in violence comes at a crucial time, as Iraqis prepare to hold parliamentary elections on April 30, the first such vote since U.S. forces left Iraq in 2011.

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Militants have disabled Iraq’s northern export pipeline since March, and are now targeting other energy infrastructure. Anti-government militants have detonated the pipeline feeding crude to the Baiji refinery and have kidnapped the head of the Haditha refinery, as northern Iraq’s energy sector increasingly suffers from their push to destabilize Iraq.Less than two weeks before pivotal national elections, the anti-government fighters – which include the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), an al-Qaida splinter group, as well as other Sunni Muslim militias and tribes – have succeeded in creating chaos that…

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