Iraq’s 75% Oil Rebound in August Cost $2 Billion in Discounts

SOMO’s August tables show 73.7 million barrels exported, the strongest month since Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz in February.…

Iraq’s Oil Is Flowing Again. Its Budget Gap Is Not Closing.

Before the Iran war, which started on February 28, Iraq earned roughly $6.5 to $6.8 billion a month from crude,…

Iraq’s Oil Revenue Is Recovering, but Its Export Geography Has Changed

Iraq’s oil-export collapse has begun to reverse, but the recovery remains incomplete and the crisis has changed how Iraqi crude…

The Kurdistan Region’s Emerging Strategic Geography

The Kurdistan Region’s energy and industrial map shows an emerging strategic geography in which the KDP and PUK, the two ruling parties that already run separate administrative systems inside one…
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Turkey Returns to Kirkuk: From a 10% Royalty in 1926 to a 15% Stake in 2026

Turkey’s state oil company TPAO has acquired a 15% stake in BP Energy Company of Kirkuk Limited, the contractor vehicle for the redevelopment of the Kirkuk oil complex. The agreement…
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As Iraq’s Oil Crisis Deepens, Syria Cashes In on the Land Corridor

Syria is increasingly benefiting from the land corridor carrying Iraqi oil to the Mediterranean as Baghdad comes under growing pressure from the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The…
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Two Power Centres: How the KDP and PUK Became Different Kinds of Useful

The Kurdistan Region has one flag and is constitutionally one polity, but for nearly two years it has not been able to form a new government, with the current caretaker…
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The 8% Oil Share That Could Define the Limits of SDF Integration and Decentralization

The Syrian Energy Ministry has reportedly reached an agreement with HKN Energy over the Rmeilan oilfields. The deal matters not only for its implications for Syrian oil production but because…
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For Iraq, Hormuz Is a Boomerang

Iraq’s oil output dropped from approximately 4.3 million barrels per day before February’s Hormuz closure to around 1.3 to 1.4 million barrels, almost entirely for domestic consumption, with exports through the southern…
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Baghdad Turns to the Printing Press as Oil Revenue Holds Near $1 Billion

Iraq has begun printing money to manage the fiscal crisis triggered by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein confirmed in an interview with Al-Sharqiya television…
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