Top Energy Stories

Iraq's Oil Ministry is initiating legal action against international oil companies operating in the Kurdistan region — part of an escalating effort to implement the Federal Supreme Court's landmark decision to invalidate the Kurdistan Regional Government's independent oil sector. Multiple oil companies received a letter summoning them to appear at the Commercial Court in Baghdad on June 5, according to three Kurdistan-focused industry officials; and Alaa al-Yassiri, the director general of the federal Oil Ministry's marketing company (SOMO), told Parliament on Tuesday that Baghdad is also planning to bring international lawsuits. "We are scratching our heads about how to respond to this latest salvo and want out of the melee if we can avoid it," said one official at an oil company that received a summons. Read the full story on Iraq Oil Report.

OPEC-plus is acclerating the pace of its production increases. The group's collective production had been set to rise by increments of 432,000 barrels per day (bpd) in July, August, and September, after which members would no longer be restricted by a production ceiling. But at a meeting on June 2, member countries decided those production increases will be spread across just two months, allowing a collective increase of 648,000 bpd in July and August. According to a table published by OPEC, Iraq's new July quota will be 4.580 million bpd. (It was previously set at 4.555 million bpd.) As Iraq's quota rises further in August — and lifts entirely in September — the country could struggle to produce much more. There is ample spare capacity at several fields, but current export infrastructure is not sufficient to handle significant new volumes.

Basra has lost 600 megawatts of power due to cuts in Iranian gas supply. According to Al-Mirbad, quoting Ziyad Ali Fadel, the director of Basra's power transmission company, Iran reduced gas supply because of unpaid debts. The cuts are hardly a surprise. In an interview with Iraq Oil Report in May, Electricity Minister Adel Karim said Iraq owes more than $1.5 billion but has not been able to pay because the government lacks the spending authorization that would come from a new budget law, which is on hold due to political stalemates around the formation of a new government.

More National News

Iraq's prime minister is silencing human rights advocates — Simona Foltyn for Foreign Policy

Ali al-Bayati had grown accustomed to intimidation. During his four-year tenure as a member of Iraq’s High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR), he became one of the country’s most outspoken human rights defenders and was often quoted in international media when the government’s violent crackdown against mass demonstrations briefly garnered the world’s attention in 2019.

As a result of his work, Bayati often received veiled threats, presumably from the entities he accused of human rights abuses. The 43-year-old father of three took precautions but refused to be silenced—until the government itself filed a lawsuit against him in February, charging him with defamation under archaic Baath-era laws.

“I have decided to leave the country,” Bayati said in a wide-ranging interview with Foreign Policy. “I’m not ready to put my kids in a position to see me being arrested in front of them.”

Stabilizing the contested district of Sinjar — International Crisis Group

Sinjar has been a "valuable strategic prize" for a variety of competing groups over the past decade, including the KDP, PKK, ISIS, Turkey, and Iran-backed paramilitary groups operating under the Iraqi government's al-Hashid al-Shabi (Popular Mobilization) program. These power struggles have come at the expense of the local Yazidi population, who have suffered genocide and mass displacement. The International Crisis Group's recent report gives a detailed account of the conflicting interests that have converged on Sinjar and a recommendation for future action:

The October 2020 Sinjar agreement could have provided a way to lessen tensions in the district, stabilise it and launch a reconstruction effort, thereby stimulating the displaced population’s return and the area’s revival. But, by excluding the key parties on the ground, Baghdad and Erbil turned the agreement into a virtual dead letter, particularly as regards governance and security.

The remedy is for Baghdad and Erbil to honour the deal they agreed to – appointing a mayor, if need be on an acting basis, disentangling local from international actors and providing integration opportunities for the former as part of securing the district, and beginning reconstruction – while at the same time drawing the local actors they excluded into new negotiations over carrying out the agreement in full. It will be a difficult task, but leaving the situation in Sinjar as is – a district where waning state power enables power struggles between Turkey and Iran and their respective proxies and allies – will simply invite more violence and displacement. After everything Sinjar’s population has gone through in the past decade, surely that future is the last one that anyone would wish for them.

Ancient city in Iraq unearthed after extreme drought — Denise Chow for NBC News

The ruins of a 3,400-year-old lost city — complete with a palace and a sprawling fort — have been unearthed in Iraq after extreme drought severely depleted water levels in the country's largest reservoir, archaeologists announced Monday.

The Bronze Age settlement, long engulfed by the Tigris River, emerged earlier this year in the Mosul Dam, and researchers raced to excavate the ancient city before the dam was refilled. The discovery is just the latest example of how drought conditions fueled by climate change are yielding unexpected finds: last month, in Nevada, falling water levels in Lake Mead turned up a pair of decades-old skeletal remains.

The Iraqi ancient city, located in the Kurdistan region at a site known as Kemune, was documented by a team of German and Kurdish archaeologists. The settlement was likely a key hub during the Mittani Empire, from 1550 to 1350 B.C., said Ivana Puljiz, a junior professor of Near Eastern archaeology at the University of Freiburg in Germany and a member of the research team.

Iran, Iraq, Syria to cooperate on sandstorms — Al-Monitor

Iran, Iraq and Syria have pledged to work together on the sandstorms plaguing the region.

The official Islamic Republic News Agency reported yesterday that Iran’s Department of the Environment signed a memorandum of understanding on combating the storms with Syria. The department will sign another memorandum with Iraq in July, according to the agency.

... Part of the cooperation will focus on working to counter desertification and water scarcity issues. Iraqi Environment Minister Jassim al-Falahi said May 30 that Iraq’s recent diplomatic work on the issue focuses on “dealing with the challenges of dust storms, water scarcity and desertification,” the Iraqi News Agency reported.

Border guards interdicted a homemade glider that smugglers were using to bring illegal narcotics into Iraq. Talib Khalil, the director of Basra's Safwan sub-district, said in a statement sent to Iraq Oil Report that the 14th Brigade of Iraq's border forces had shot at the aircraft, forced it to land, and seized hundreds of thousands of narcotic pills. The pilot fled and does not appear to have been captured.

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