Fayadh Nema and Falah Alamri have deep relationships in the Oil Ministry and decades of experience with hot-button energy issues.
Baghdad takes a hard line against budget transfers to KRG as negotiations falter, prompting civil servant strikes and imminent protests.
High-level diplomacy has failed to make progress, and a recent U.S. legal filing from Turkey suggests a new phase of adversarial action.
Iraq is pushing the limits of its outdated southern export infrastructure as a dispute with Turkey is keeping the northern pipeline system offline.
One of Iraq's most prolific oil fields can only meet production targets if it can secure additional supplies of water to inject into reservoirs.
Exports and output are rising, but Kurdistan's oil industry is still in crisis due to the northern pipeline outage.
Imminent ministerial-level visits to Baghdad and Ankara are likely to address major challenges to restarting Iraq’s northern exports.
Construction is underway on a new pipeline to bring gas supplies from the Khor Mor field up to Dohuk.
The KRG has received 598 billion dinars under the new budget law — a fraction of its theoretical monthly entitlement.
Key details remain unresolved, including the lynchpin issue of whether oil companies will get paid enough to enable KRG fields to restart.
