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
Read MoreKey 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
Read MoreFitch 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
Read MoreJuly 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
Read MoreOPEC Monthly Oil Market Report – July 2015 The OPEC Reference Basket averaged $60.21/b in June, representing a decline of $1.95. Crude oil futures prices saw mixed movement with ICE Brent falling by $1.86 to average $63.75/b, while Nymex WTI gained 46¢ to reach $59.83/b. This caused the Brent-WTI spread to narrow to around $3.90/b for the month. Money managers further reduced n
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