Energy

Iraq takes action on illicit oil schemes

U.S. designation of a key oil sector logistics provider highlights sanctions risks, prompting Iraqi measures to combat corruption in fuel trading.

Iraqi Navy vessels take part in operations to combat illicit oil sales in August 2025. (Photo credit: GCPI)

Sep 7, 2008

Iraq approves gas deal with Royal Dutch Shell

Iraq's Cabinet approved an initial gas agreement between the Oil Ministry and Royal Dutch Shell to invest in a joint venture to tap natural gas in southern Iraq, a government statement said. The agreement calls for establishing a joint venture between the state-run South Oil Co. and Shell to exploit the fields, the statement added […]

Sep 4, 2008

New details emerge in Iraqi oil deal with China

China says a multi-billion dollar oil deal with Iraq is still being negotiated. This contradicts reports last week from Iraqi officials, who said the deal had been signed, Daniel Schearf reports for Voice of America. China's Foreign Ministry on Thursday said negotiations with Baghdad to exploit an Iraqi oil field continue. Iraq's embassy in Beijing […]

Sep 2, 2008

Iraq approves oil deal with China

Iraq has approved a $3 billion deal with China to develop the al-Ahdab oil field. It's the first Saddam-era oil deal to be honored by the new Iraqi government. It initially was canceled after the 2003 invasion. A government statement says the Cabinet approved the deal on Tuesday. It was signed last week in China. […]

Aug 31, 2008

Iraqi contracts develop as oil begins to move

Lebanon hopes to sign a deal with Iraq in the next two months to buy crude oil below market prices, after Baghdad agreed to sell oil to Jordan at $22 a barrel, Bloomberg's Massoud A. Derhally reported. "We are hoping for a similar agreement,'' Lebanese Minister of Finance Mohamad Chatah, 57, said in an interview […]

Aug 28, 2008

Iraqi oil exports up for July

The Iraqi Oil Ministry says that oil exports in July inched up to 58.8 million barrels — a 0.7 percent increase from the previous month, the AP reported. The statement says the barrel was sold at an average price of $113.8 and yielded $6.692 billion. June's price stood at $123 a barrel. The statement adds […]

Aug 26, 2008

Iraq power generation at 2003 levels

Iraq is now producing as much power as it did on the eve of the US-led invasion of 2003 but is still meeting barely 50 percent of peak demand, a senior electricity ministry official said. "2008 is the first year when production has reached the level prior to that of Saddam Hussein's fall," the ministry's […]

Aug 21, 2008

Iraqi oil contracts ebb and flow

The long-suffering bill that would govern Iraq's oil industry and divvy up oil wealth has been stalled more than a year, bogged down in political squabbling and symbolic of problems rippling below the surface here despite success on the security front. Just last year, U.S. and Iraqi officials repeatedly announced that passage of the oil […]

Aug 19, 2008

China lands Iraqi oil contract – but U.S. still gets its crude

Iraq will sign a $1.2 billion oil service contract with China to replace a production-sharing deal agreed under Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi newspaper, an-Noor said, quoting oil minister Hussain al-Shahristani. The oil minister is travelling to China at the end of this month to discuss the deal, which was orginally signed in 1997 between Iraq […]

Aug 17, 2008

Iraqi oil contracts fizzle

Iraq is likely to abandon plans to sign up to $3 billion in short-term oil contracts, a U.S. diplomat said, putting in doubt deals that would give foreign oil firms their first major foothold in the country for decades, Missy Ryan reports for Reuters. "It appears that on present form (the Iraqi government) probably won't […]

Aug 14, 2008

Haliburton, Dana move on Iraq deals

Dana Gas, the United Arab Emirates-based oil and gas company, will start natural gas production from a gas field in northern Iraq in September and is preparing to drill appraisal wells at a second field next year, a top company executive said Thursday. The Abu Dhabi stock market-listed firm will start production of 75 million […]