11 August 2006 Iraq’s Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has so far failed to impose his authority over the city council of Basrah while calls for the establishment of an autonomous federation of the south are increasing. Basrah — the capital of the southern oil province and currently home to all of Iraq’s oil exports — has been wrought by a power struggle among Shiite factions over the past year,…
Tag: smuggling
Iraq, Iran Oil Deal Raises Suspicions
15 August 2006 Iraq and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Sunday to swap Iraqi Basrah oil for refined products, the second such deal since July 2005. The two Mideast nations also agreed over the weekend to jointly develop shared oil fields, an issue that is expected to raise suspicion by critics of an Iran-Iraq alliance. With Iraq in the midst of its worst fuel crisis since 2003,…
Iraq Seeks New Refineries, Export Pipes
12 September 2006 Iraq is embarking on new projects to add refining capacity and build new pipelines, in a bid to meet domestic fuel needs, insure stable exports from northern oil fields, and raise overall export capacity to 3 million barrels per day within the next five years, according to Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani. Baghdad has revived refinery upgrade plans that were tendered in several packages over the past…
Iraq-Mideast Conundrum
22 June 2001 Pressure is mounting as UN Security Council members race to revamp the 11-year-old sanctions regime against Baghdad before their self-imposed Jul. 3 deadline. Pushed by its main regional ally, Saudi Arabia, the US is finding it increasingly difficult to win success on the Iraqi front without becoming actively involved in the Middle East conflict. At the same time, however, Riyadh is helping the US pile the pressure…