Oil minister shakes up senior leadership

Amidst efforts to reform Oil Ministry management and streamline bureaucracy, Luiebi sidelines Dhia Jaffar and moves to steer upstream operations.
Oil minister shakes up senior leadership
Iraqi Oil Minister Jabbar Ali al-Luiebi (left) during a tour of the South Oil Company's Zubair warehouses on Aug. 27, 2016. (ALI AL-AQILY/Iraq Oil Report)

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.

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