Saudi Arabia Withdrew Billions From Markets, Estimates Show. By Stefania Bianchi

Saudi Arabia has withdrawn as much as $70 billion from global asset managers as OPEC’s largest oil producer seeks to plug its budget deficit, according to financial services market intelligence company Insight Discovery.   "Fund managers we’ve spoken to estimate SAMA has pulled out between $50 billion to $70 billion from global asset managers over the past six months," N

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Iraqi Kurds Dealt Setback by U.S. Court Ruling on Oil Sale

Bruce Stanley and Laurel Calkins Sep 22, 2015 10:58 pm ET The U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans dismissed an attempt by the Kurdistan Regional Government to overturn a judge’s earlier decision against its planned sale of oil to an unidentified buyer in the U.S. The KRG’s eventual sale of the disputed cargo in Israel made the appeal moot, the court said in a ruling. The cas

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Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi Fights to Control Government

Key Take-away: The government of Iraq is planning sweeping political reforms and attempting to reshuffle the cabinet. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is even calling for the elimination of the Vice President and Deputy Prime Ministers positions. These officials include former Prime Minister and current Vice President Nouri al-Maliki, a rival of Haider al-Abadi. These events ma

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Fitch Assigns Iraq’s First Rating at ‘B-‘/Stable

Fitch Assigns Iraq's First Rating at 'B-'/Stable Link to Fitch Ratings' Report: Iraq - Rating Action Report Fitch Ratings-London-07 August 2015: Fitch Ratings has assigned Iraq a Long-term foreign currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of 'B-' with a Stable Outlook. The agency has also assigned a Country Ceiling of 'B-' and a Short-term IDR of 'B'. KEY RATING DRIVERS The rating

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July exports dip despite rising Basra output

July exports dip despite rising Basra output Iraq maintained near-record export levels in July due to rising output from Basra, which helped offset disruptions to northern oil sales caused by political disputes and pipeline outages. The State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) reported an average 3.105 million barrels per day (bpd) of exports in July (a total of 96.245

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