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…

INOC Draft Law

A Clarification about INOC draft law: The Council of Ministers (CoM) passed on July 28th by a majority vote a draft law for the re-establishment of Iraq National Oil Company “INOC”. A number of points were raised by the Shoura Council, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of oil and the Legal Directorate in the Council of Ministers Secretariat and a number of recommendations were made by the Advisory commission. All were…

Power Machine

The law establishing (or re-establishing) Iraq National Oil Co (INOC) has finally passed the first hurdle, by getting the approval of the council of ministers, not without some opposition as one would expect. After all, the new company to be established as a holding company with considerable powers is set to become the most important institution in the operation of Iraq’s oil sector due first to its structure and second…