Conflict between the KDP and PUK has driven dysfunction in Erbil and weakened Kurdish influence in Baghdad as a new government takes power.
Parliament has approved a majority of Cabinet posts as Ali al-Zaidi becomes Iraq's next prime minister and Bassim Khudair rises from deputy minister to oil minister.
The first American designation of a sitting senior Oil Ministry official comes as Iraqi leaders negotiate the composition of a new government.
The Iraqi side of the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline is still months away from coming online — a consequence of years of dysfunction that deprived Iraq of strategic export flexibility.
April oil sales fell to one-twelfth of pre-war volumes as Basra exports restarted and stalled, and northern exports hit a plateau.
Iraq's electricity grid has survived a drop in domestic gas feedstock by employing backup measures that are unlikely to meet the challenges of summertime demand spikes.
Iraq's top upstream oil official confirms that production, curtailed by war, is ready to surge back online — but only once ships can reliably resume Basra Gulf export loadings.
Iranian forces blocked a tanker carrying Iraqi crude, dampening hopes for a durable resumption of Iraq's southern exports.
The first tanker loading from a Basra Gulf export outlet in over a month signals tentative progress toward reviving southern oil sales and production.
A fast-track pipeline project will send associated gas from Nahr Bin Omar field to Basra Gas Company's newly expanded BNGL complex.
Basra export outlets are about to receive their first tanker in over a month, but production cuts remain in place for now.
