Oil minister shakes up senior leadership

Oil Minister Jabbar Ali al-Luiebi is reshuffling the leadership of his ministry in an apparent effort to take more direct control of upstream operations and make the bureaucracy more efficient.

In a Nov. 15 order, which was seen by Iraq Oil Report, Luiebi removed Dhia Jaffar as the deputy oil minister for refining, a post he has held for the past two years. Jaffar, who was previously the director general of the state-run South Oil Company (SOC), will now be "acting adviser for energy affairs," the ministerial order said.