Kurdistan export pipeline nearly complete

Pipe-laying machine stands beside sections of 36" diameter steel pipe, which await welding next to a trench dug 5 km west of the town of Sumel in Dohuk province. (PATRICK OSGOOD/Iraq Oil Report)

A nearly complete natural gas pipeline has been turned toward the Turkish border for crude exports, bolstering the KRG's threats to sell its oil with or without Baghdad's cooperation.

  • Q&A: Alaa Mohie el-Deen

    Alaa Mohie el-Deen, the head of Iraq's Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, gives a press conference in February 2013. (STAFF/Iraq Oil Report)

    The leader of Iraq's push for oil sector transparency discusses Iraq's latest EITI report, as well as the challenges of integrating Kurdistan into the process.

  • Q&A: Gen. James Jones

    US President Barack Obama (R) looks on d

    The former national security adviser to President Obama calls for a U.S. policy shift that would embrace Iraqi Kurdistan's oil deals.

Oil majors seek Kurdistan deals, despite uncertainty

A worker at Gulf Keystone Petroleum's Shaikan extended well test facility. (SEBASTIAN MEYER/Metrography/Iraq Oil Report)

Without a clear path to monetize large-scale production in the KRG, IOCs are showing less appetite for mergers and acquisitions, but they're still in the market for new exploration blocks.