There's optimism in Iraq, at least from a mysterious cadre called the Energy Fusion Cell, which for the past eight months worked to bring coherence to both U.S. and Iraqi initiatives in the oil, gas and power sectors -- the backbone of its citizens' quality of life and the bulk of the national budget. It's […]
Plus: *Iraq oil ends '07 with good and it's-been-worse news *Oil law update *What Turkey wants *Iraqi solutions, U.S. problems *much more.... Turkey's president made it clear during his visit to Washington this week that his country will continue a hard-line approach in dealing with the Kurdish guerrilla campaign in his country and ensuring Kirkuk, […]
Iraq's oil sector ends 2007 on a relatively upbeat note, with production at levels not seen since before the war. But the year had more downs than ups, and sustaining success through next year is far from guaranteed. Iraq averaged production of 2.4 million barrels per day in November, according to the global energy information […]
Basra’s Changing Hands Iraq’s oil capital, Basra, is now officially under control of Iraqi forces. The British have "controlled" the area since 2003. Control is relative, however, since under British occupation Iraq’s main rivalries have been allowed to foster competing militia violence and, along with other armed groups and gangs, turn the oil and fuels […]
There have been nearly 600 pipeline attacks in Iraq since March 2003, though recent security strategies have allowed additional flow in the northern pipeline. Attacks are also increasing in the power sector, especially among workers being targeted, according to an assessment from March 2003 to Nov. 17, 2007, made for United Press International by an […]
Iraq's Oil Ministry is accusing the Kurdistan region of preventing development of one of Iraq's oldest, largest and most controversial oil fields, another dispute in the battle over control of the country's vast reserves.While the rift has been public, the issue of the Kirkuk oil field project is starting to surface in conflicting accounts. …"We […]
Violence is steady, and deadly, in Kirkuk and Basra, where combined more than 90 percent of Iraq’s reserves are located. The violence is less related to fighting terrorists than it is to finding a solution to the power struggle in Iraq. A pipeline from Iraq to Iran is being built, according to press reports. The […]
Oil continues to flow from Kirkuk to Turkey, despite Kurdish separatist threats to blow it up as a tactic against Turkey, Simon Webb reports for Reuters. Iraq was pumping around 400,000 barrels per day of Kirkuk crude to Turkey on Thursday for the seventh consecutive day, the shipper said. "The flow is about 18,000 barrels […]
Turkey may implement economic sanctions against the Kurdistan Regional Government, including cutting needed power supplies, Iran’s PressTV reports. It sounds like a squeeze on the KRG for not quashing the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party. The PKK is threatening to sabotage the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline – in the Kurdistan territory – but has yet to make good […]
While the Turkish threat looms in northern Iraq, Simon Webb reports for Reuters oil will not be in harm’s way. Iraq’s controversial oil law has enough support in Parliament, but won’t be put forward until there is greater backing, Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih told Reuters. But the Iraq war as a whole has helped […]
