Iraq oil production still up, but can it hold? … Basra residents not fans of Brits … Electricity targeted again by attackers … Investigating Iraq’s U.S. Inspector General

Iraq oil is steady at 2.3 million barrels per day, according to the International Energy Agency, the BBC reports. It’s a substantial output considering the country’s huge reserves and that it has averaged less than 2 million bpd production since 2003. But the increase in production is because the northern pipeline has been fixed and heavily guarded, which means all it takes is a success by insurgents – responsible for keeping the pipeline offline for much of the past 4½ years – to bring production back down.

Amid today's tight crude markets, hundreds of thousands of extra barrels of oil have helped ease the strain. They are coming from a surprising source: Iraq, Hassan Hafidh reports for The Wall Street Journal.