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Weir Group gets Lukoil contract for maintenance at oil field in Iraq

The Weir Group, a Scottish oil services company, said it signed a $98 million contract to provide maintenance for the West Qurna-2 oil field in southern Iraq. Weir, which has headquarters in Glasgow, said it agreed to provide general maintenance and pipeline services for Russian oil company Lukoil at the field for two years. The Scottish company said it has already set up an $8 million service center at the Iraqi port city of Basra, one of the first maintenance facilities of its kind in the country. “This substantial contract demonstrates the importance of Weir’s long experience of working in Iraq and our reputation for delivering high-quality engineering services in support of the country’s developing oil field infrastructure,” Weir Chief Executive Officer Keith Cochrane said in a statement Friday. Weir said its operations in Iraq will help Lukoil produce an estimated 150,000 barrels […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iraq’s Oil War

A long-simmering controversy over control of Iraq’s massive oil reserves flared into the open Friday as one of the country’s most powerful ministers threatened to take legal action against Iraqi Kurdistan, Turkey and any foreign companies that helped the Kurds export oil without permission from Baghdad. Iraqi Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi told reporters that Baghdad considered the Kurds to be trying to sell "smuggled" Iraqi oil and would sue both the Kurdish and Turkish governments if any planned export deals moved forward. Luaibi also threatened to blacklist Turkish companies from doing business in Iraq if they helped the Kurds move the oil out of their semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq. "If Turkey allows the export of oil from the region, it is meddling in the division of Iraq, and this is a red line," Luaibi told reporters in Baghdad. The harsh words from Luaibi come as the security […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iraq's Oil War

A long-simmering controversy over control of Iraq’s massive oil reserves flared into the open Friday as one of the country’s most powerful ministers threatened to take legal action against Iraqi Kurdistan, Turkey and any foreign companies that helped the Kurds export oil without permission from Baghdad. Iraqi Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi told reporters that Baghdad considered the Kurds to be trying to sell "smuggled" Iraqi oil and would sue both the Kurdish and Turkish governments if any planned export deals moved forward. Luaibi also threatened to blacklist Turkish companies from doing business in Iraq if they helped the Kurds move the oil out of their semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq. "If Turkey allows the export of oil from the region, it is meddling in the division of Iraq, and this is a red line," Luaibi told reporters in Baghdad. The harsh words from Luaibi come as the security […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Kurds’ oil deal with Turkey ‘endangers Iraq’s budget’

The feud between Iraq’s central government and the minority Kurds’ semiautonomous enclave over oil is reaching critical mass, the head of parliament’s treasury committee says. Haidar Al Abadi, a senior legislator, has warned the government’s projected 2014 budget will fall apart if Kurdistan does not hand over revenue from independent oil exports to northern neighbor Turkey that began recently. Such action by the Kurdistan Regional Government, which is defying the Baghdad regime of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki by pursuing its own oil and gas exports outside the Oil Ministry’s control, will leave the central authority no option but to halt all state spending in the enclave. Kurdistan’s share amounts to around 17 percent of overall state expenditure. The loss of that revenue could be crippling, unless the KRG, which the federal government accuses of acting illegally, can generate enough income from oil sales to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Kurds' oil deal with Turkey 'endangers Iraq's budget'

The feud between Iraq’s central government and the minority Kurds’ semiautonomous enclave over oil is reaching critical mass, the head of parliament’s treasury committee says. Haidar Al Abadi, a senior legislator, has warned the government’s projected 2014 budget will fall apart if Kurdistan does not hand over revenue from independent oil exports to northern neighbor Turkey that began recently. Such action by the Kurdistan Regional Government, which is defying the Baghdad regime of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki by pursuing its own oil and gas exports outside the Oil Ministry’s control, will leave the central authority no option but to halt all state spending in the enclave. Kurdistan’s share amounts to around 17 percent of overall state expenditure. The loss of that revenue could be crippling, unless the KRG, which the federal government accuses of acting illegally, can generate enough income from oil sales to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Bombings kill 12 people in Iraq

A series of bombings in and north of Baghdad on Saturday killed 12 people, including a soldier and his entire family, said Iraqi officials. Police officials said that in the deadliest attack two blasts in Muqdadiyah targeted the home of a soldier, killing him, his wife, his two daughters and two sons as they were sleeping. The entire house was destroyed in the attack. Muqdadiyah is about 90 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad. A car bomb in a commercial street in Baghdad’s western district of Amariyah killed four people and wounded 12 others, said police. Also, in western Baghdad, a bomb blast near an out-door market in the Sadiyah neighborhood killed two shoppers and wounded six. Hospital officials confirmed the casualties for all attacks. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information to reporters. Nobody immediately claimed […]

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Basra Governor faces legal challenge, demands oil contracting rights

Majid al-Nasrawi has been holding community meetings in the heart of oil country asserting the rights of the Basra government in oil contracting and threatening to stop oil production if an increase in petrodollar revenue redistribution doesn’t take effect. His controversial workload and high stress of the job are what officials close to the first-time politician said they blame for Nasrawi’s heart attack last week in Baghdad followed by angioplasty surgery in Kuwait. Nasrawi, who became g…

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Iraq oil exports dip in 2013

Iraq exported a total of 872.3 million barrels of oil last year, or 2.39 million bpd, according to oil ministry figures Baghdad (AFP) – Iraq’s oil exports in 2013 declined compared with the previous year, new figures showed on Wednesday, despite the country’s efforts to dramatically ramp up crude sales to fund much-needed reconstruction. Exports in December recovered from multi-month lows earlier in the year, but were still below their peak, with overall exports and revenues for the year lower than similar figures for 2012, according to oil ministry data compiled by AFP. Overall, Iraq exported 72.6 million barrels of oil in December, an average of 2.34 million barrels per day (bpd), bringing in revenues of $7.47 billion (5.5 billion euros). Those figures were higher than in November, and also represented marked increases on September, when Iraq managed to export just 2.07 million bpd. "The exports and income in […]

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Iraq only slumping OPEC member, IEA says

Iraq was the only member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to post a decline in oil production last month, the IEA said Tuesday. The International Energy Agency, which has headquarters in Paris, said Tuesday oil production from the 12 members of OPEC declined 535,000 barrels per day in December year-on-year. OPEC’s December production, however, was 310,000 bpd higher than the previous month. OPEC said in its January market report demand for its crude oil declined because of production increases from North America. The IEA said 11 of the 12 members of the OPEC cartel, including Libya, were reporting production gains, reversing four months of decline. "Iraq was the only member to post a decline, though beleaguered Libya saw only a modest rise, amid government expectations of an imminent recovery in oil output," the IEA said in its market report. Violence has increased […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple