Top Energy Stories

A rocket attack on May 1 damaged a storage tank at a refinery complex in Erbil — highlighting what appears to be an escalating threat against the Iraqi Kurdish company KAR Group, which operates the refinery and other critical energy projects in Iraqi Kurdistan. "The fire was extinguished at dawn on Monday," said an official at the Kirkuk-based North Oil Company (NOC), which supplies the refinery with some of its crude feedstock. An official at the refinery also confirmed the attack. It was the second time in a month that the refinery has come under rocket fire; the first attack, on April 7, missed the refinery by about 1 kilometer and caused no damage. In a third incident, on April 12, an attack caused an explosion near a key pumping station on Kurdistan's oil export pipeline, which was built by KAR Group and is operated by KAR and Rosneft. Those attacks came on the heels of a March 16 Iranian missile strike that destroyed the house of Baz Karim, the head of KAR Group. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has claimed without evidence that Karim's house was somehow affiliated with Israel. For more on the latest incident, read the full story on Iraq Oil Report.

Iraq's countrywide oil exports averaged 3.818 million barrels per day (bpd) in April, a month-on-month increase of more than 200,000 bpd. Federal Iraqi exports averaged 3.380 million bpd, up from 3.245 million bpd in March, while oil sales from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) increased to 438,000 bpd, up from 362,000 bpd the previous month. Total daily exports were the highest since April 2020. Read the full story on Iraq Oil Report.

How To Navigate Iraq's Business Environment

A message from Iraq Britain Business Council (IBBC):

International and regional companies operating in Iraq need good advocacy, insights, and support to navigate Iraq’s business environment. IBBC has many years of successful operations on behalf of our members, with strong Governmental and supply chain contacts to enable and promote your business. Why not apply for membership and attend our international London and Dubai conferences open to non-members?

Register for our upcoming IBBC Spring Conference at the Mansion House, London on May 24 via our website here.

IBBC also runs trade missions to Iraq, at least three events a month in the UK, Iraq and MENA region, special member away weekends, dinners, and meetings with Iraqi officials in UK and Iraq, and regular advisory papers on economics and political economy of Iraq. We are Iraq’s International business network with a strong anchor in the UK, and we welcome reputable businesses from all sectors, including especially Education, Training and Heritage, Professional Services, Energy, Tech, General Trading, Construction and Finance.

Email london@webuildiraq.org for further information.

Interview Spotlight

Carnegie Middle East Center: Interview with Harith Hasan, who recently published a paper titled “Eden Denied: Environmental Decay, Illicit Activities, and Instability in Iraq’s Southern Border Area”:

Q: You mention in your paper that economic decline and environmental degradation have led to the rise of criminal gangs and paramilitary groups. Can you outline the kinds of activities in which such groups have engaged, and how much of a risk does this pose to the Iraqi state?

Harith Hasan: The most noticeable consequences of the multiple conflicts and environmental degradation in Basra Governorate have been the waning of agriculture, the massive dislocation of populations, rising unemployment and poverty, deepening social uncertainty, and violent competition over resources.

Many people migrated to urban centers in search of jobs in the public sector, the security forces, or services. Large numbers of volunteers from peasant families in Basra joined paramilitary groups, some of which have engaged in illicit activities. What can be called the “militiazation” of Iraqi society, especially in Basra and southern Iraq, cannot be detached from the broad processes of social dislocation, the breakdown of rural lifestyles, and the rise of oil rentierism.

In the context of a weak state, militias and paramilitaries not only tried to fill the vacuum but also become economic enterprises using violence as a tool of extortion. As the governorate with Iraq’s largest oil supplies and the only port, and one that also borders Iran and Kuwait, Basra was ideal for those able and willing to exploit its sources of wealth. That is why, since 2003, it has become a place where paramilitary groups and militias have flourished.

Read the full interview here.

More National News

AFP: Thousands sick as latest severe sandstorm sweeps across Iraq

One person died in Iraq and more than 5,000 were treated in hospitals Thursday for respiratory ailments due to a sandstorm, the seventh in a month, the Health Ministry said.

Dust storms have increased dramatically in frequency in Iraq in recent years, driven by soil degradation and intense droughts made worse by climate change, with rising average temperatures and sharply lower rainfall.

"One death has been recorded in Baghdad" and hospitals "have received no less than 5,000 cases so far," health ministry spokesman Seif al-Badr said in a statement.

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