A five-year contract with Halliburton targets 250,000 bpd from two Basra fields, while a Chevron-linked consortium wins approval to study Turkey and Syria export pipeline routes.

Baghdad and Ankara are pursuing a temporary deal to keep Iraq's only secondary oil export route operating past the July 27 expiration of the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline treaty.

Halliburton and HKN win Cabinet approval to develop two oil fields, as Baghdad signals momentum to push bigger American investments forward.

As a new government takes power, high-level political shifts are starting to filter down through the leadership ranks of Iraq's oil sector.

The agreement governing the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline is set to expire on July 27, raising the likelihood that Iraq could lose its main wartime oil export outlet and revenue source.

Conflict between the KDP and PUK has driven dysfunction in Erbil and weakened Kurdish influence in Baghdad as a new government takes power.

Parliament has approved a majority of Cabinet posts as Ali al-Zaidi becomes Iraq's next prime minister and Bassim Khudair rises from deputy minister to oil minister.

The first American designation of a sitting senior Oil Ministry official comes as Iraqi leaders negotiate the composition of a new government.

The Iraqi side of the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline is still months away from coming online — a consequence of years of dysfunction that deprived Iraq of strategic export flexibility.