A series of bomb attacks which targeted markets near Baghdad have killed at least 15 people, Iraqi officials said as security forces recaptured parts of a strategic Sunni oil town north of the capital from Islamic State militants.
Iraq is embroiled in its worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of US troops in the wake of a blitz this year by the Sunni militant Islamic State group, which has seized a third of the country’s territory.
After heavy fighting overnight, Iraqi security forces backed by Shiite volunteers managed to push into the strategic oil town of Beiji today, taking control of some of the town’s southern districts, according to officials.
Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd. is sending staff back to Iraqi Kurdistan after US airstrikes eased the threat from Islamic State militants that prompted a mass evacuation of expatriate oil workers three weeks ago.
Oil Search Ltd. temporarily suspended a well in Iraqi Kurdistan after violence in the region disrupted its ability to get skilled technicians and equipment to the Taza oil project.
Marc Kolber, a native of Long Island, has spent more than three years overseeing the construction of offices for foreign oil companies in Iraqi Kurdistan. Now he’s joining an exodus of expatriates from the capital, Erbil.
A dispute over control of Kirkuk and Iraq’s fourth-largest oilfield between the central government in Baghdad and Kurdish regional officials should be resolved with a local vote, according to the country’s ambassador to the UK.
Petroceltic International today confirmed it suspended production and withdrew all non-essential staff from its operations in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude climbed for a second day after U.S. President Barack Obama authorised air strikes in Iraq, the second-biggest oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
The Kurdistan Regional Government could double its oil production in the next year and triple it within a decade, according Goldman Sachs Group.
The semi-autonomous region is currently locked in a battle with the Iraqi government over its right to export crude.
As modern Iraq collapses, the northern region of Kurdistan is emerging as an oasis of relative calm -- with plenty of oil to support its political ambitions for independence.
With the advance of Islamist rebels deep into Iraq, autonomous Kurdistan is increasingly rejecting Baghdad’s claims over its oil. Last week Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani seized control of fields near Kirkuk, in the latest move by Kurdistan to assert control over the region’s oil.
Some 50 bodies have been found in Iraq, many of them blindfolded and with their hands bound, raising concerns over a possible sectarian killing amid the battle against a Sunni insurgency.
UK government officials fear that oil workers working in Iraq could be kidnapped and handed over to the brutal militant group looking to create a new Islamic state in the region.
Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurds plan a referendum for independence and will keep troops in the nearby oil hub of Kirkuk until people there can vote on whether to join the Kurdish enclave, a regional government spokesman said.
Brent crude declined, trimming its biggest monthly gain since August amid speculation that continuing violence in Iraq will disrupt supply from OPEC’s second-largest oil producer.
Brent headed for the first weekly decline since violence erupted this month in northern Iraq as the crisis has so far spared oil output from Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)'s second-largest producer.
Energy Voice spoke to David Bell, Professor of Economics at University of Sterling, about how the Iraq crisis can realistically impact global prices of oil - including those at the pumps.
Brent crude traded close to its lowest closing level in a week after Iraq said oil exports from the south of country would still increase amid the northern insurgency.
Iraq’s prime minister has called on his nation’s political blocs to close ranks in the face of Sunni militants - but gave no concrete promise of greater political inclusiveness for minority Sunnis.
US Secretary of State John Kerry met with leaders in the capital of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region in his bid to prod the country to unite against an al-Qaeda offshoot that has seized control over swaths of the country.
An al-Qaeda breakaway group seized more territory on Iraq’s borders with Jordan and Syria as US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Baghdad to try to get political leaders to set aside sectarian divisions and confront the growing threat.
