Having already started the year in a fragile position, Iraq entered 2020’s oil price crisis under visibly different circumstances to the previous crash of 2014-15; In 2015, Iraq was the world’s second-largest contributor to global liquids growth accounting for approximately 75% of OPEC production growth. The launch of a new crude grade – Basra Heavy and the build-out of new e
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At its core, regulation is about freedom to do business. Regulation aims to prevent worker mistreatment by greedy employers (regulation of labor), to ensure that roads and bridges do not collapse (regulation of public procurement), and to protect one’s investments (minority shareholder protections). All too often, however, regulation misses its goal, and one inefficiency replac
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A typical Iraqi individual From the outset, let me say that I am an Iraqi in every sense of the word. My one goal in life was to pursue a career in energy as a petroleum engineer and serve my country. Despite several setbacks in my younger years, I secured my dream job, but it came at a cost. In 1971, I was sentenced to death in absentia on trumped-up charges that led to
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Iraq’s New Prime Minister and the Challenge of Change A Conversation with Kanan Makiya Organized and edited by David Siddhartha Patel, Associate Director for Research The largest and most sustained demonstrations in Iraq’s post-Ba‘th era began in early October 2019, which led to the resignation of then Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi. After five months without a govern
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ABSTRACT This paper surveys the history of the oil industry with a particular focus on the events associated with significant changes in the price of oil. Although oil was used much differently and was substantially less important economically in the nineteenth century than it is today, there are interesting parallels between events in that era and more recent developments.
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