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Iraq Close to Agreeing Cuts in Oil Output Targets

Iraq’s oil minister said Tuesday the country is close to agreeing to sharp cuts with major Western oil companies in production targets set out for them at some of its largest oil fields, casting doubts over Iraq’s ambitious oil output targets. When Iraq signed up a number of big Western companies to help it reverse declining output in some of the world’s most promising fields, government officials set lofty—many experts said unrealistic—production targets for these companies.

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Iraq Controls Kurdish Oil Exports Under New Accord, Luaibi Says

Iraq ’s self-ruling Kurds agreed to let the central government in Baghdad control the amount and quality of crude they export as well as manage revenue from its sale, Iraqi Oil Minister Abdul Kareem al-Luaibi said. The Kurdistan Regional Government will export oil using a metering system operated by the Oil Ministry in Baghdad, Luaibi told a news conference yesterday in Vienna. The Kurds also agreed to put money earned from the sale of oil from Kurdish fields into a UN-administered account for Iraq’s earnings from crude, he said. The agreement may herald an end to years of confrontation between Iraq’s Kurds and the central government. It may lead to a formal accord this month under which Kurdish authorities resume oil shipments via Iraq’s government-run export pipeline to neighboring Turkey , Luaibi said. The KRG halted the flow last December in a dispute with the central government over how […]

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Hezbollah chief: Saudis behind embassy bombings

The leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group has accused Saudi Arabia of being behind last month’s two suicide bombings that targeted the Iranian Embassy in Beirut. Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah’s comments mark the first time Hezbollah has openly accused the kingdom, and marks a sharp escalation in the Shiite Muslim group’s rhetoric. An al-Qaida linked group has claimed responsibility for the Nov. 19 attack that killed 23 people, saying it was in response to Hezbollah and Iran’s involvement in Syria. Nasrallah said the claim was credible but accused Saudi intelligence of providing backing and support. He also said Saudi intelligence was behind daily terrorist attacks in Iraq. Nasrallah spoke in an interview Tuesday with Lebanon’s private OTV network. © 2013 The Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms […]

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Iraq Says Can Export Extra 1 Million Bpd Next Year

Iraq is planning to lift oil output by more than a million barrels a day to over 4 million bpd in 2014, in what would be the country’s biggest oil supply increase since the fall of Saddam Hussein a decade ago. Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi said Iraq planned to lift exports to 3.4 million barrels daily, including 400,000 bpd from the semi-autonomous Kurdish region. With domestic consumption running at about 700,000 bpd that would take total Iraqi supply above 4 million bpd, up from just below 3 million bpd now. That scale of production increase would raise the pressure on others in OPEC, chiefly Saudi Arabia, to curb supply to prevent oil prices falling. But industry experts and oil company executives working on Iraqi oilfield development say a 4 million bpd output target looks very unlikely to be achieved next year. They […]

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Kurds Forge a Risky Oil Deal With Turkey

The autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan said it agreed to supply Turkey with oil through a pipeline in a landmark deal that raised tensions with Baghdad, which fears the move could spark independence drives by other Iraqi governorates. But the Monday announcement here, in the region’s capital, was tempered by Baghdad’s refusal to approve the deal, which it considers illegal. As a result, Kurdish officials didn’t begin shipping pipeline oil, as observers had expected, and Turkey pledged to organize trilateral talks between Erbil, Baghdad and Ankara to resolve the issue. The tensions go to the heart of the disagreement between Kurdistan, a relatively prosperous and stable province, and Baghdad, where sectarian violence has soared in recent months as the central government strives to maintain control over restless regions. Iraq’s ties with Turkey have also frayed, as Shiite Muslim-led Baghdad accused Ankara of meddling in its internal affairs by […]

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Yildiz meets Shahristani in effort to mend ties

Yildiz meets Shahristani in effort to mend ties Turkey is trying to repair relations with Iraq’s central government, days after defying Baghdad and signing agreements to solidify its energy alliance with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz met with Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain al-Shahristani, Oil Minister Abdul Karim Luaibi, and other Iraqi officials for more than two hours in Baghdad on Sunday. When they emerged, Yildiz and Shahristani struck a conciliatory tone.”The meeting was p… 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 .

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple