Politics

Baghdad threatens to choke off KRG funding

Political tensions skyrocket after recently announced gas deals, resulting in legal challenges and threats to Kurdistan's budget.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (standing, center right) and KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani (standing, center left) oversee a ceremony in Baghdad on April 4, 2023, to sign a temporary deal for restarting northern oil exports. (Photo credit: Prime Minister's Office)

Oct 27, 2008

Maliki, oil and gas committee to meet on Iraq oil law

Draft version received in Parliament Sunday, kicked back to council of ministers for legal clarification Plus: *Japan envoy meets on Iraq oil *Chinese team expected in November *Industry Ministry workers demand pay promise *Reaction to U.S. attack on Syria-Iraq border *KBR accused of sticking U.S. taxpayers, shocking American workers in Iraq *Fallujah sewage project at […]

Oct 23, 2008

Iraq oil not part of OPEC cuts

Iraq not bound by quota; struggling to reverse decline Plus: *Walid Khadduri on the return of Big Oil to Iraq *Iraq presidency council gives oil smuggling law OK *SOFA Update: English text and analysis *Labor Minister target of suicide bomb *Iraqis suffer for lack of basic services *The Mahdi Army bides its time *Much more […]

Sep 19, 2008

State Dept. says Iraq oil trust fund bill could derail revenue sharing and oil laws

Plus: *Oil Minister Shahristani blames KRG oil deals for oil law delay *Top two on Parliament energy committee dispute oil issues *Former South Oil Co. head made official ministry adviser *Parliament sends electricity crisis to special committee *Kurdish MPs want Iraq-U.S. draft deal altered, fearing attack *Elections law debate postponed *Ethnic tensions expanded, explained *Much […]

Sep 17, 2008

U.S. Senators push for Iraq oil trust fund

Plus: *Parliament held up on election law *Voter registration low *Alive in Baghdad: Getting to School in Iraq The Bush administration would press the Iraqi government to adopt an oil trust fund for distributing revenue or risk economic assistance under a bill proposed by Sens. Hillary Clinton and John Ensign, Ben Lando reports for United […]

Aug 24, 2008

Even Obama needs more than Biden to make sense of Iraqi oil deals

Barack Obama’s approach to Iraq is strikingly similar to that of the Bush administration and John McCain. In theory, the addition of Joe Biden to Obama’s ticket could change this, but over the last weeks and months there have been interesting moves by Biden to remove most traces of his "Iraq plans" from the public […]

Aug 5, 2008

Iraq hoarding oil profits?

The soaring price of oil will leave the Iraqi government with a cumulative budget surplus of as much as $79 billion by year’s end an American federal oversight agency has concluded in an analysis released on Tuesday. The unspent windfall, writes James Glanz for The New York Times, from oil sales from 2005 through 2008, […]

Aug 3, 2008

Kucinich enters Iraqi oil fray

The Oil for Iraq Liberation bill, introduced by Congressman Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, will prevent U.S. based oil companies from development of and investment in petroleum resources of Iraq. "Recently we have seen evidence of a concerted effort to pressure the Iraqi government into privatizing Iraqi oil fields against the will of its citizens. We have […]

Jul 29, 2008

Neocon, Perle exploring Iraqi oil business

Influential former Pentagon official Richard Perle has been exploring going into the oil business in Iraq and Kazakhstan, write Susan Schmidt and Glenn R. Simpson for The Wall Street Journal. Perle, one of a group of security experts who began pushing the case for toppling Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein about a decade ago, has been […]

Jul 27, 2008

U.S. State Dept investigates Iraqi oil contracts

The State Department's inspector general is investigating Iraqi oil contracts after four Democratic senators complained that department employees may have encouraged lucrative oil deals between Iraq and several Western companies, Christine Simmons writes for the AP. Any backstage meddling would have violated Bush administration policy, which has been to discourage such deals until Baghdad passes […]

Jul 13, 2008

Iraqi oil sparks political sour note

Mr. President, said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., I am deeply concerned by the apparent lack of a clear and consistent U.S. policy on the entering into of oil deals in Iraq in the absence of Iraqi national hydrocarbon legislation. Unfortunately, that legislation, which would ensure equitable distribution of oil revenues among the Iraqi people and […]