Maritime Security

The Iraqi navy will have a daunting task of protecting Iraq’s export outlets in the Gulf and securing Iraq’s territorial waters and the tankers routes once the US military wraps up its mission and hands over security responsibilities to the Iraqi side by the end of December 2011. But that won’t be the end. Just as neighboring countries benefit from the presence and the might of the US navy in…

Power Sharing

A power-sharing deal brokered after eight months of protracted negotiations among the winning parties in Iraq’s March legislative elections seems to have led to a situation where the country is led by two executive bodies: the cabinet and the National Council for Strategic Policies (NCSP). In the new era the two state institutions would have executive powers over oil and gas issues, from endorsing oil pipelines deals with neighboring countries,…

2nd Bid Round Results

There was certainly an unwarranted rush by the government to award all the fields included in both rounds totalling 27 although they could not get offers for some of the smaller ones and the reasons for Kirkuk and Bai Hassan are more related to Kurdish objections than anything else..I do not attribute that to the wish of Maliky to gain popular support for the elections as the absolute majority of…