Iraq’s oil export pipeline to Ceyhan restarted early on Aug. 5 after more than a week offline due to technical problems and sabotage.
With independent oil sales hitting record highs, Kurdistan promises payments to cash-starved IOCs – but pipeline attacks cast a cloud of uncertainty.
Northern exports fall due to political disputes and pipeline outages, but federal oil sales stay near record levels.
Director General Sameer al-Taie's dismissal comes amidst a corruption investigation, and following the assassination of a candidate to replace him.
The new projects could bring 150,000 bpd of new refining capacity and help push the KRG from subsidies to market-based fuel pricing.
Basim Mohammed Khudair, a senior South Oil Company (SOC) official, has been named acting director general of the Iraqi Drilling Company (IDC).
Protestors throughout south Iraq are angry at another summer with inadequate electricity, with some threatening an oil project at Majnoon.
Chronic outages due to smuggling and technical failures along the Turkish side of the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline have sapped both federal and KRG oil sales.
The anti-IS coalition has at least temporarily set aside divergent interests in a concerted effort to dislodge militants from Ramadi and Fallujah.
Both sides are seeking multi-billion-dollar damages in a bitter battle over Kurdistan's most prospective gas fields.
