Turkey, Syria, and Iraq edge toward a rail corridor that bypasses the KRG

On April 4, 2026, Turkish Transportation Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu announced that Ankara will revive “the railway line from Nusaybin to…

Iraq’s Oil Exports Collapsed by 82% in March as SOMO Scrambles to Build Emergency Alternatives

The war’s first full month wiped out most of Iraq’s seaborne export capacity. The patchwork of fallback routes Baghdad assembled…

The Pipeline Card: Why the KRG’s Strongest Lever May Be Its Most Dangerous

Iraq’s oil minister said today that Kirkuk crude would be re-exported within a week through the old federal Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline…

KRG Civil Servants Owed $21bn After Decade of Delayed and Partial Salaries

The KRG owes its public sector workforce an estimated 30.8 trillion Iraqi dinars, approximately $21 billion, in unpaid wages, withheld salary increases, and accumulated arrears built up over eleven years…
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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 the punishing reality of paying duties twice on the same…
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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 total government expenditure of 99.98 trillion dinars outstripped revenues of…
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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 per day in August to nearly 20,000 per day. The…
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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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