Iraq’s Customs War Is Quietly Rerouting Trade and Draining Kurdistan’s Gateways

Customs revenue at the Kurdistan Region’s border crossings has collapsed by fifty percent, and traders across northern Iraq now face…

Iraq Posts 8.8 Trillion Dinar Deficit in First Nine Months of 2025 as Wage Bill and Pensions Surge

Iraq’s Ministry of Finance close the first three quarters of 2025 with a budget deficit of 8.81 trillion dinars, as…

A Pipeline Uday Hussein Built to Evade Sanctions Now Bankrolls Syria’s Kurds

The SDF-led administration in northeast Syria has increased its oil sales to Kurdistan Region buyers, rising from roughly 5,000–7,000 barrels…

A Gas Field in Kurdistan Becomes a Front Line in the U.S.–Iran Energy War

The 26 November combined drone-and-rocket strike on the Khor Mor gas field in the PUK-controlled Chamchamal district of Sulaimani is the most serious in a string of more than a…
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KRG Oil Exports Hit 200,000 bpd, Now Cover 52% of KRG Salary Bill

Iraq’s North Oil Company says around 200,000 barrels of KRG oil are currently being exported per day, a figure confirmed by the KRG’s Natural Resources Minister, who added that the…
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KRG Oil Exports to Hit 250,000 Barrels Daily in November, Sold as Kirkuk Crude at Ceyhan

The KRG’s oil exports are set to rise by 86% in November compared to October, with Iraq’s state oil marketer SOMO scheduled to load 250,000 barrels per day at the…
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What US Sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil Mean for Iraq and the Kurdistan Region

The US Treasury on Wednesday sanctioned Rosneft and Lukoil—Russia’s largest and third-largest oil exporters—citing “Moscow’s serious non-compliance with the peace process to end the war in Ukraine.” The EU followed…
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KRG Salary Tracker: Month-by-Month Timeline (2015–2025) 

KRG Salary Tracker Public employees in the Kurdistan Region have now gone two months without pay (September and October 2025), amid an unresolved financial dispute with the federal government in…
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Shaikan Oil Production Tops 9.6m Barrels in First Eight Months of 2025, Revenue Hits $269m

Oil production from the KRG’s Shaikan field, located northwest of Erbil, remained strong during the first half of 2025, particularly in the first five months, averaging more than 46,500 barrels…
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How Northeast Syrian Oil Continues Flowing Into Kurdistan’s Refineries

The oil of northeast Syria, extracted from fields in Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor, continues to flow into the Kurdistan Region. There, it is refined in Dohuk and Erbil before being…
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