Key Takeaway: ISIS continues its offensive in Anbar near the al-Asad Airbase. ISIS has control of some parts of the nearby sub-district of Baghdadi, as its ability to demolish the homes of the Iraqi Security Forces there indicates. ISIS is also deliberately destroying government buildings and infrastructure, creating a practical as well as symbolic problem for the reconstitut
Read More(Reuters) - Production from Saudi Arabia is rising, and demand has pushed it up to about 10 million barrels per day (bpd), according to energy consultancy PIRA. The estimate suggested the country is hewing tightly to the strategy of protecting market share rather than cutting production to try to inflate prices. Saudi production averaged about 9.7 million bpd since last June,
Read MoreIndustry Minister Nasser al-Esawi said the Shell complex is expected to start up operations within five to six years and would make Iraq the largest petrochemical producer in the Middle East. Shell has signed a deal with Iraq worth $11 billion to build a petrochemicals complex in the southern oil hub of Basra, news agency Reuters reported on Wednesday. Industry Minister Nasse
Read MoreIraq’s oil ministry can sue the Kurdistan regional government for possession of 1 million barrels of crude that have waited in a tanker circling off the Texas coast for more than five months, a U.S. judge said. U.S. District Judge Gray Miller in Houston rejected the Kurds’ claims of sovereign immunity and said the regional government’s plans to sell its crude in the U.S. gave
Read MoreKey Takeaway: The last three days have witnessed a prioritization of Anbari areas where the Iraqi Government has largely not committed resources since the fall of Mosul in June 2014. The district of Rutba fell to ISIS on June 25, 2014 and has been under uncontested control by the organization ever since. ISIS control of Rutba has allowed it to control major parts of the highw
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