BAGHDAD - An engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to build the $4 billion Karbala refinery will be signed by the beginning of 2014, part of a revived effort by Baghdad to boost its neglected refining sector. "It was supposed to be awarded this year, but there were some issues related to the [budget] allocations for it, and probably it will be awarded at the
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ERBIL - The consortium managing the only producing natural gas field in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region is taking the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to court, alleging overdue payments that are likely to total over $2 billion. The dispute threatens to send an uncharacteristically chilling signal to foreign companies that have generally lauded the KRG's Ministry of Natur
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Download Introduction An executive summary, henceforth ES, of Iraq’s Integrated National Energy Strategy, INES, was released recently (22 pages); summarising a set of, reportedly, seven volumes. Obviously, such a brief document cannot fully describe seven volumes and as a result, commenting on it is bound to be provisional and incomplete. Topics covered in ES have many aspects
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For full text of the paper including end-of-paper tables and appendix, click PDF file. I. The background[1] Since the commencement of the production of crude oil in the thirties and forties the oil wealth has transformed the oil countries gradually from low- to middle- and some to high-income countries. In the fifties, with the profit sharing agreements the major Arab oil produ
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Download the whole document as PDF file External debt Although various estimates and figures are being published and exchanged the stock of external debt is not precisely known. Moreover, as it had not been serviced since its inception the added capitalisation of accumulated interest is also problematic. Furthermore, much of the Gulf countries’ debt took the form of tran
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