The cooperative oil export and revenue-sharing deal reached by leaders in Baghdad and Erbil on Dec. 2 has been promoted as the last chance to end a decade of acrimony over oil policy. The Cabinet has now embedded its terms into the 2015 draft budget law, which is now being considered by Parliament. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is slated to contribute 250,00
Read MoreIraq's Cabinet balanced a collapse in oil revenue while maintaining spending commitments needed to placate key constituents and keep up the fight against the so-called Islamic State (IS) militant group in a draft budget for 2015 that it approved Tuesday. The budget calls for spending of around 123 trillion Iraqi dinars (about $102.5 billion), said Abdul Qadir Omar, a member of
Read MoreMy views and conclusion are summarised below: The KRG will receive: 17% (“Ayad Alawi’s” gift, not the Parliament’s, regardless of their true population percentage) + a payment amounting to 17% of the sovereign expenses which is their legal budget obligation + a payment amounting to the net income of the open unspecified or defined oil production for internal consumption (which
Read MoreAs U.S. shale and Canadian oil sands companies continued to pump out crude, Saudi Arabia let its taps flow and the subsequent plunge in the oil price threw a wrench in their rivals production plans In the high-stakes contest between the United States, the biggest shale oil producer, and Saudi Arabia, the biggest oil exporter, America has blinked first. The OPEC refusal to cut
Read MoreERBIL, Iraq — The new oil agreement between Iraq’s federal government and the autonomous Kurdish government in the north appears to have left some room for confusion as to what the Kurds should do with the significant amount of oil that they do not export under Baghdad’s supervision. According to the deal signed on Dec. 2, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) pledges to exp
Read More