Government formation promises relief from Iraq’s upstream stasis

The new administration’s close ties to Tehran could mould its stance towards potential IOC investors

Iraq’s oil sector has been frozen since elections last year, paralysed by the caretaker government’s constitutional inability to make major policy and spending decisions. While rival Mideast Gulf producers and their foreign partners have spent their oil price windfalls on turbocharging upstream development, Baghdad is lagging, even though it is set to end the year with its coffers at their plumpest for nearly 20 years. As a result, the belated appointment of a new government in late October was greeted by the country’s IOC investors with a general sigh of relief. But the sentiment was largely detached from the character of the administration, moulded as it is by a tactical victory after year