Iraq oil news stories on Newser

To Keep Eye on Its Oil, Iraq Buys US Drones

Matt Cantor — Mon, 21 May 2012 09:57:09 CDT

Iraq is looking to America to help it monitor its oil interests—sort of. The country is buying unarmed surveillance drones from the US that will scour Iraq's Persian Gulf waters, which Iran has spoken of blockading in the past and which the majority of Iraq's oil exports flow through,...

Trump: Let's Just Seize Iraq's Oil

Kevin Spak — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 07:00:00 CDT

Donald Trump has an interesting concept of how the world’s oil markets work: In an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC , Trump opined that the reason oil was so high was because “We don’t have anybody in Washington that calls OPEC and says, ‘Fellas, it’s time. It’s over. You’re not...

UK Consulted Big Oil Before Iraq Invasion

Rob Quinn — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 03:21:16 CDT

Contrary to official denials, British oil firms were jockeying for a share of Iraq's oil wealth the year before Britain took a leading role in the 2003 invasion, newly released documents reveal. Government ministers held at least five top-level meetings with execs from BP and Shell in late 2002, and...

Iraq's Oil Reserves Bigger Than Previously Thought

Nick McMaster — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 13:56:25 CDT

Iraq is home to 24% more oil than it had previously estimated, the country announced today. In Iraq's first revision to its stated oil reserves since 2003, the oil ministry claims to have 143.1 billion barrels of known and recoverable oil, up from the previous level of 115 billion...

Pentagon Lost Track of $8.7B in Iraqi Oil Money

Kevin Spak — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:19:44 CDT

The Pentagon can’t account for $8.7 billion of the $9.1 billion in Iraqi oil money given to it for reconstruction expenditures between 2004 and 2007, according to a new audit. The military has no audit at all for $2.6 billion of that money, and the rest wasn’t...

Oil Giants Bend to Iraq's Terms

Kevin Spak — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 10:35:42 CST

If the Iraq war was fought for oil, it’s done little to enrich American oil companies, which are just now striking deals to service the country’s fields—and at far worse terms than they’d hoped. Most companies balked at Iraq’s initial service contract offers, refusing to bid in a June...

American Adviser to Kurds Outed as Oil Shareholder

Jane Yager — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:15:18 CST

An influential American advocate for Iraqi Kurds, who helped successfully secure Kurdish control over new oil finds in northern Iraq in the country's constitution, stands to reap more than $100 million from the policy he shaped. Peter Galbraith, it turns out, received rights to an enormous oil stake in Kurdistan...

In Televised Auction of Oil Contracts, Iraq Plays Hardball

Jason Farago — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:34:00 CDT

The Iraqi oil industry has been nationalized since 1972, but today the country is awarding the first contracts in decades to private petroleum companies—live on television. So far a joint bid by British Petroleum and a Chinese firm has won the first contract, for a 17 billion-barrel field in...

Big Oil Drooling Over Iraq Contracts

Rob Quinn — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:48:08 CDT

Iraq is preparing to welcome back the foreign oil companies it ejected over 30 years ago, and the firms are giddy with anticipation, the Wall Street Journal reports. Contracts to revive production at neglected oil fields go up for auction next week, and competition is expected to be fierce. Oil...