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Top Energy Stories

Iraq’s highest court has struck down the government order that created the Iraqi National Oil Company (INOC) two years ago, dealing a crippling setback to a nascent effort to restructure and streamline the country's oil sector. In a 16-page ruling dated Sept. 21, a panel of Federal Supreme Court (FSC) judges headed by Jassim Mohammed Aboud said that Cabinet decisions relating to INOC’s establishment and leadership were “invalid” and ordered them to be annulled. Because most key INOC leaders have retained equivalent roles in the Oil Ministry, the FSC's decision does not seem likely to cause major disruptions for day-to-day operations. It does have profound implications in stopping Ihsan Ismaael's longer-term goal of revamping the entire management structure of Iraq's oil sector. Read the full story on Iraq Oil Report.

Iraq’s Oil Ministry has removed four oil services firms from a blacklist, including U.S. company Weatherford, after they agreed not to seek new contracts in Iraqi Kurdistan — the latest development in the federal government's campaign to exercise control over the semi-autonomous region's energy sector. The director general of the state-run Basra Oil Company (BOC), Hassan Hassan, communicated the ministry's decision in a letter dated Sept. 9 to "All Lead Contractors" at oil projects throughout Basra. The letter lists Weatherford, NPS – a subsidiary of NASDAQ-listed National Energy Services Reunited Corp. – Chinese firm ZPEC and China National Petroleum Corporation subsidiary Great Wall Drilling Company as the firms removed from the Oil Ministry’s blacklist. Read the full story on Iraq Oil Report.

A court in Baghdad again delayed the federal government's lawsuits seeking to annul several of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) oil contracts. At a hearing Tuesday Judge Mohammed Ali Mahmoud Nadeem said the cases would be postponed both because many companies have not yet been served with summonses and because the court needs time to process a request by the KRG Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) to join the lawsuits as a third party. While most IOCs have essentially ignored the court — declining to send official representatives to hearings or respond to summonses — Gazprom Neft did send a lawyer to appear in court on Tuesday. Read the full story on Iraq Oil Report.

TotalEnergies has completed the sale of its interest in Kurdistan's Sarsang oil field. The company issued a statement on Sept. 15 confirming it has sold its 18 percent non-operating stake to Canada's ShaMaran Petroleum for $155 million with a further $15 million "contingent consideration" possible in the future "depending on production and oil prices."

GE has signed a 16-year agreement to provide parts, repairs, and service to the Baziyan power plant in Iraqi Kurdistan's Sulaimaniya province. According to the company's announcement on Sept. 15:

GE Gas Power has signed an agreement with Taurus Arm, owner of the 500 megawatts (MW) Iraq’s Bazyan Power Plant, to provide parts, repairs, and services for two 9F.04 gas turbines at the facility for a period of 16 years.

The turbines were supplied by GE to Taurus Arm in 2021 under a fast-track project, where they were delivered to the site within months of notice to proceed. GE Digital will also provide its Asset Performance Management (APM) software to increase the reliability and availability of the units, decrease costs, and reduce operational risks.

National News

Turkish intel chief pursues multiple goals in Baghdad, by Fehim Tastekin for Al-Monitor:

Turkey’s intelligence chief Hakan Fidan became the country’s first official to hold high-level talks in Baghdad after bilateral tensions shot up in July.

... In Baghdad, Fidan met with President Barham Saleh, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad al-Halbousi. He emphasized Turkey’s commitment to Iraq’s territorial integrity, but asserted that Turkish cross-border operations would continue as long as the PKK maintains its presence on Iraqi territory, according to the Iraqi Kurdish media.

... During the meetings Fidan reportedly discussed Turkey’s operations against the PKK, the issue of water-sharing pertaining to the transboundary Euphrates and Tigris rivers and the possibility of Turkey providing military equipment to Iraq and helping to overcome the political crisis in the country.

... Fidan’s role in Turkey’s foreign ties has increased in recent years, especially on security-related issues. His meeting with Khanjar speaks of Turkish intelligence’s involvement in political matters as well.

The most stinging resignation letter ever written, by Robert F. Worth for The Atlantic:

Allawi made himself a chart showing which ministry employees answered to which political party. The real powers were the party bosses, the oligarchs, and the militia leaders. They treated even the government’s nominal leaders like lackeys. Allawi wrote that at one point, he was threatened with a travel ban after he refused a summons from a party boss. Allawi and al-Kadhimi had been hailed as Iraq’s potential saviors, because they were free of the taint of Iraqi politics. But that left them with very little leverage in a country where power is exercised through armed street gangs, stolen money, and religion.

... When I spoke with Allawi last week, he sounded melancholy but not regretful. He said that he had thought at length about the decision to step down. He worried that he was becoming a kind of fig leaf, providing reassurance to Iraq’s foreign supporters but unable to do anything about the rot. Ultimately, he told me, “it was a moral stand. I wanted to wake people up. That what they think of as significant acts of corruption are nothing compared with what’s under their noses. Their future is being sold.”

Life in the margins: re-examining the needs of paperless people in post-conflict Iraq, a report by the Norwegian Refugee Council:

Five years after the declared end of the conflict with the Islamic State (IS), Iraq’s recovery remains fragile as many communities remain in need of humanitarian assistance.

Among those most at risk of exclusion are the one million internally displaced and returnee Iraqis that lack civil documentation, such as core identity documents and birth, marriage and death certificates. Without key documents, displacement-affected populations can lack legal identity or status and find themselves excluded from key services and facing critical protection risks.

While the number of Iraqis missing documentation has reduced as a result of concerted interventions by a range of actors, broader systematic and policy-level barriers remain. This is particularly true for populations with perceived affiliation with IS, for whom the process of securing documentation has only become more challenging in recent years. Women and female-headed households and internally displaced people (IDPs) unable to access Civil Affairs Directorates also face heightened challenges.

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