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Basra Energy starts amid output push
The JV assumes the role of Rumaila’s main contractor as a new production target is set
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The country has lifted its long-term production target to 8mn bl/d despite continued murmurings about IOC dissatisfaction
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Unlocking southern Iraq’s oil
Baghdad’s revisiting on contractual terms may need to be radical to stop IOC flight and offer alternatives to China
Iraq’s upstream shows signs of life
Baghdad is once again looking towards much higher long-term capacity goals
Upbeat outlook in Iraqi Kurdistan
Oil and gas developers in the semi-autonomous region are looking forward to a year of rebound
China’s Iraq influence keeps growing
Chinese companies have strengthened their already healthy position in the Iraqi oil and gas sector as other IOCs back off
Flare capture offers easy wins
Reducing gas flaring can both accelerate progress to net-zero and offer a swift boost to industry credibility
Iraq and Iran move further apart
Baghdad’s pivot away from its neighbour is increasingly extending to their shared resources
IOCs stay committed to south Iraq
IOCs are pushing ahead with plans for output expansion—and the phasing out of flaring—despite Basra violence this summer
Bridge over the Tigris River in Baghdad
Iraq World Bank
Peter Ramsay
12 July 2021
Follow @PetroleumEcon
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Oil price recovery stymies Iraq's reform hopes

The short-term boost to government coffers from crude’s rally will likely postpone any significant changes

“There is a need for reform, but, as long as oil prices are high, I cannot see that happening.” So says Ahmed Tabaqchali, chief investment officer of the Iraq fund at fund management firm Asia Frontier Capital (AFC), speaking on a June podcast organised by political risk consultancy Menas Associates. In the teeth of what the World Bank warned in September last year was the risk of an “economic meltdown” in Iraq due to the pandemic-led collapse in oil prices, Iraqi finance minister Ali Allawi and other reformist elements drafted two white papers, “one laying out the diagnosis of why Iraq was in such a profound pickle, and the second laying out both micro and macro plans for economic reform”,

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