Top Energy Stories

Iraq's Cabinet has moved forward with plans to reestablish the Iraqi National Oil Company (INOC), naming former Oil Minister Thamir Ghadhban to serve as expert advisor to the board of directors along with three members. But with parliamentary approval of amendments to the law still not guaranteed, it isn’t clear whether and how INOC can become meaningfully operational. The move by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi ahead of October elections appears to be the latest in efforts by the Iraqi Ministry of Oil to establish facts on the ground in the face of legal and political delays. Read the full story on Iraq Oil Report.

A political rift is threatening stability in gas-rich Sulaimaniya. The dominant party in the Iraqi Kurdish province is facing a serious leadership crisis as a simmering family dispute has escalated rapidly, threatening cohesion within the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Bafel Talabani, son of the late “Mam” Jalal Talabani, the founder of the PUK and former Iraqi President, last week moved to consolidate authority within the party, which controls a swath of gas rich territory in the eastern half of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). The move burst open an internal rift with his cousin Lahur Shaikh Jangi Talabany, with whom he shares power. The two have served as co-presidents of the PUK since a December 2019 leadership congress. Territory under PUK control produces around 10 percent of the KRI's oil output, but it contains the Kurdistan region’s only producing gas field, Khor Mor, as well as several other promising gas assets under various stages of development. Read the full story on Iraq Oil Report.

Iraq's federal government made the first budget payment to the Kurdistan region in nearly a year. The July 10 transfer of 200 billion Iraqi dinars ($138 million) was confirmed to Iraq Oil Report by officials in both the KRG and the federal government. With many technical and accounting details still to be worked out between the two sides, it was not immediately known if this first transfer would be followed by regular payments to the KRG, which has struggled to pay its civil servants in full or on time. The timing of the transfer comes less than two weeks before Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi is scheduled to visit Washington, where U.S. officials are expected to encourage better cooperation between Baghdad and Erbil. Read the full story on Iraq Oil Report.

National News

A fire in a coronavirus ward in Nasiriya's al-Hussein Teaching Hospital killed 92 people, according to the AP. This is the second fire in a coronavirus ward in less than three months. Facing public anger at the mounting death toll, Prime Minister Kadhimi convened an emergency meeting and ordered the suspension and arrest of Dhi Qar’s Health Director and Civil Defense Chief. Kadhimi called the tragedy “a deep wound in the consciousness of all Iraqis.” Officials disagreed on the cause of the fire: some said it was caused by a short circuit, while another official said the blaze erupted when an oxygen cylinder exploded. The tragedy follows a similar blaze in Baghdad, killing 82 people in April. That fire broke out when an oxygen tank exploded. Iraq’s health minister resigned over the disaster, and government officials faced widespread public outrage.

Militants from the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) militant group are regrouping four years after the battle of Mosul. IS fighters still hold a string of hideouts in southern Kirkuk, writes Ghaith Abdul-Ahad for the Guardian. One Iraqi Special Forces commander, briefing his men, said that IS fighters are based in the Hamrin mountains, east of Kirkuk, but move down to streams and irrigation canals during the summer months. The streams “become their shelter and communication networks,” said the commander. The number of IS fighters is still low and their finances are depleted, writes Abdul-Ahad. Because of this, the fighters seek shelter in the mountains and are constantly on the move. One tribal leader told the reporter that IS fighters are now in the same situation Al Qaeda was in after 2009: “They went underground to regroup and reorganize; it took them less than three years to come back stronger.”

Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court has rejected calls to establish a criminal court in Erbil to try IS suspects, according to Khazan Jangiz, reporting for Rudaw, citing the Kurdistan Region’s Ministry of Justice. A statement from the ministry said that the Kurdistan region’s request had been denied. KRG Minister of Justice Firsat Ahmed said, "It’s been two years the Kurdistan region prepared and worked on several documents on the crimes of Daesh terrorists…. We will review the decision of the Federal Court and we will have our own response with the relevant parties.” An advisor to the KRG’s Ministry of Justice told Rudaw that Baghdad’s response “has to do with the sovereignty of Iraq,” because the KRG can’t employ non-Iraqi judges and public prosecutors. Jangiz writes that according the Article 95 of the Iraqi Constitution, the establishment of a “special or extraordinary court is prohibited.”

Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar, is experiencing a post-IS investment boom, writes Jane Arraf for the New York Times. Arraf quotes the head of Anbar’s Investment Commission, Mahdi al-Noman, who says that “in two years, we managed to turn things around.” Ramadi has begun to flourish, writes Arraf: “Along with [a] $70 million hotel, construction has begun on one of the country’s biggest shopping malls and companies are submitting bids for an international airport.” Iraqi investors are apparently bringing profits back to Anbar and foreign companies are taking a “new look at a city largely rebuilt after the fight against Islamic State.”

Iraqi architects and their syndicates are unhappy with Gulf-style designs to restore the city’s famous landmarks, writes Jane Arraf for the New York Times. The award and contract for the best design was funded by the UAE and went to an Egyptian architecture team. Describing the competition to redesign Mosul’s famous al-Nuri mosque, Iraqi architect Ihsan Fethi said, “It’s a fiasco, honestly. The whole thing has been a terrible tragedy for us.” The Iraqi Society of Engineers, which oversees the architects’ union, issued a statement opposing the project. The Iraqi Architectural Heritage Preservation Society rejected the winning design as seriously flawed, and said the design introduced “alien” concepts. When it announced the competition, UNESCO said the design was supposed to advance the city’s reconciliation and cohesion.

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