Economics

Iraqi workers build the base of a small bridge in central Baghdad on May 12, 2010, as part of municipal projects aimed at helping ease traffic in the congested Iraqi capital. (ALI AL-SAADI/AFP/Getty Images)

Plans vague, rely on oil

A new 5-year plan for economic and social development in Iraq offers little details, but relies on oil exports to double and fund projects that will only succeed if security improves.

  • Obama continues U.S. immunity from claims to Iraq’s oil dollars

    POTUS protects Iraq from creditors in continuation of 2003 policy. Companies and countries claim Iraq owes billions in unpaid debt and damages from Saddam Hussein era.

  • Production-sharing contracts: a dying breed?

    EDITOR’S NOTE: The issue of production-sharing contracts (PSCs, also called production-sharing agreements, or PSAs) in Iraq is a contentious one. Encouraged initially by American advisers as the best means for investment in post-war Iraq by, the system, which allows oil companies to take a share of the profits of all oil extracted, can mean that if oil prices rise, oil companies make huge profits without increasing their investment. Iraq Oil Report guest contributor and former U.S. energy offici…

  • Sour grapes refined to wine in post-oil auction Diyala

    Officials in Diyala province, miffed that foreign companies missed the opportunity for oil investment here, are looking upbeat now at alternative investment prospects.

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