Ashti Hawrami

The Kurdistan Regional Government’s minister of natural resources, Ashti Hawrami, spoke to Ruba Husari in Erbil late July on the latest developments in Kurdistan’s upstream and downstream sector, the smuggling controversy, differences with Baghdad over crude exports and the fate of the federal hydrocarbon law. Q. What’s the status of the different contracts signed so far with the KRG and how is work progressing on the ground? A. We have…

Mr. Five Percent

I was privileged two years ago to be invited, as an observer, to attend a roundtable in Paris where about 30 Iraqis from inside and outside of Iraq, with experience in government and the oil sector, convened over three days to discuss in a candid and open manner how to define an oil policy for Iraq. To my surprise – and the shock of everyone else in the room –…