Hydrocarbon Law 2011

Does Iraq still need a hydrocarbon law? According to Tariq Shafiq who co-authored the first version of Iraq’s Oil & Gas Law in 2006, yes it does. So do others including the Kurds who made its enactment one of the conditions for backing Nouri al-Maliki for PM last year, and the latter as well since he agreed to do it within six months of taking office. However, the recent revival…

Mana’a Al-Obeidi

In an interview in his office in Kirkuk (North Iraq) late August, Manaa al-Obeidi, director general of North Oil Co (NOC) talks to Ruba Husari, editor of Iraq Oil Forum, about the state of the northern oil fields and NOC plans: Q: What is the state of the producing fields in northern Iraq? A: We have witnessed a relative increase in output from producing fields in the last 18 months….

Iraq: The Shiite View

25 July 2008 Iraqi Shiite Vice President Adel Abdul Mehdi does not disguise his and his party’s ambitions in establishing a semiautonomous region in southern Iraq, home to the country’s most abundant and biggest oil fields, in parallel to the Kurdistan region in northern Iraq, despite Sunni objections and warnings that the move would practically divide Iraq into three mini-states, with the southern region backed by influential Shiite neighbor Iran….