The Islamic Development Bank has given its initial agreement to provide $3 billion in easy loans and grants to Iraq, helping the nation cope with a sharp decline in oil revenue, a central bank spokesman in Baghdad said Thursday in an email. The spokesman did not give further details. Iraq earlier this month agreed a $5.4 billion standby loan with the International Monetary
Read MoreERBIL May 30, 2016 – A new World Bank Group report proposes a series of reforms to enable Iraq’s Kurdistan Region to chart a path out of the difficult economic challenges it faces toward a more sustainable and diversified economic future. The combination of factors that have recently placed more pressure on the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) include fiscal crisis, close proxi
Read MoreOPEC's strategy of letting the oil market balance itself is working as investment in the industry is falling and any recovery will take time to bring new supplies, a senior Iraqi oil official said on Friday. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries shifted policy in 2014 to focus on market share rather than cutting production to support prices, and at a meeting
Read MoreIraq has positively surprised oil majors by starting quickly to repay accumulated debts, the head of Russia's Lukoil said, pledging more investment to allow OPEC's second-largest producer to maintain stellar output growth. Iraq has become the world's fastest-growing oil producer with output up 50 percent since it signed contracts worth tens of billions of dollars with the li
Read MoreWhile energy companies have put the brakes on capital spending thanks to low crude prices, in a few short years there won't even be enough oil to meet demand, former Shell Oil CEO John Hofmeister predicted Thursday. "We cannot ever produce enough oil, in my opinion, to satisfy global demand five or 10 years out. We have to start using natural gas and more biofuels as a sourc
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