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Kuwait’s Emir Suspends Parliament;Can He Quell Tumultuous Divisions?
...ss a crucial debt law since 2017 due to opposition by MPs, these onerous spending commitments saw Kuwait rack up some $108bn in cumulative deficits over 2014-2022 (see chart 2). A 2024-2027 government program published earlier this year envisages a further surging of deficits to a colossal total of KD...
Volume: 67Issue: 20Published at Fri, 17 May 2024 -
Iraq And US Seek To Rebuild Ties Amidst Rising Regional Tensions
...lations between Baghdad and Erbil are at their lowest ebb since the region’s controversial 2017 independence referendum. On the positive side, the disputes between Baghdad and Erbil did not derail the visit. Mr Sudani made sure to include representatives from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in hi...
Volume: 67Issue: 16Published at Fri, 19 Apr 2024 -
Baghdad & Kurdistan IOCs Exchange Blame As Northern Export Halt Enters Second Year
...C executive asserts that in January accounting firm Deloitte, which has audited Kurdistan’s independent pipeline exports since 2017, shared “all contractual commercial terms that they [the Baghdad oil ministry] requested without violating the NDA [non-disclosure agreement] of contractual co...
Volume: 67Issue: 13Published at Fri, 29 Mar 2024 -
Sudan-Iran Diplomatic Thaw Raises Stakes In Battle For Red Sea Influence
...men (MEES, 20 January 2017). Iran and Sudan committed to reopening their respective embassies in the other’s capitals amid the “opening of a new chapter” between Tehran and Khartoum, according to an Iranian official statement. TIPPING THE SCALE Ç The diplomatic br...
Volume: 67Issue: 07Published at Fri, 16 Feb 2024 -
Deadly Militia Attack On US Outpost In Jordan Underlines Iraqi Government’s Weakness
...litias could destabilize a fragile reconciliation between Iraq and its Arab neighbors, and possibly threaten the economic and trade gains that Baghdad hopes will bring much-needed investment from GCC countries (MEES, 8 December 2017). SOPHISTICATED AND STRATEGIC ATTACK The line be...
Volume: 67Issue: 05Published at Fri, 02 Feb 2024 -
Iran Faces Blowback After Rocket Attacks Hit Iraq, Pakistan & Syria
...nior Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Studies. “Iran is pressuring the KDP to align with its agenda for Iraq. Iran has not forgiven the KDP for spearheading the 2017 [Kurdistan independence] referendum and siding with Sadr and Halbousi against the PMUs after the 2021 elections,” he ex...
Volume: 67Issue: 03Published at Fri, 19 Jan 2024 -
Kuwait’s New Emir Criticizes Political Divisions
...tober 2022 did KPC finally began operations at its long-awaited 120,000 b/d GC-32 project which was due online in 2020 after a $1.3bn 2017 award to the UK’s Petrofac (MEES, 31 March 2017). …WITH DELAYED PROJECT AWARDS The minister’s claims are backed up by a 30 Oc...
Volume: 66Issue: 51/52Published at Fri, 22 Dec 2023 -
Kuwait’s Cabinet Looks Ahead To A Troublesome 2024
...rrorism related charges. As well as the political figures, those pardoned included Shafi al-Ajimi who was jailed in 2021 for financing Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front in Syria, and Hassan Abdul Hadi Hajeyah who was sentenced in 2017 to life in prison for heading the infamous ‘Abdali Cell’. The group ha...
Volume: 66Issue: 50Published at Fri, 15 Dec 2023 -
Yemen’s Breakthrough Truce Threatened By Houthi Military Attacks
...mbined cycle power plant. Yemen’s oil and gas sector had been declining since long before the onset of civil war. Production peaked in 2002 at 457,000 b/d with exports remaining above 100,000 b/d until 2014 (MEES, 15 September 2017). However, since the start of the conflict and the Saudi-led in...
Volume: 66Issue: 48Published at Fri, 01 Dec 2023 -
Divided Kurdistan Struggles To Be Heard In Baghdad
...rum were cautiously optimistic that momentum is building behind the scenes to close the dangerous political divide between the two parties. The KDP had sought to take advantage of PUK divisions following the 2017 death of the party’s founder Jalal Talabani, but his son Bafel Talabani has now co...
Volume: 66Issue: 47Published at Fri, 24 Nov 2023 -
Algeria-Italy Gas Slump
...,300 b/d for an implied 60,000 b/d gross Ourhoud figure, less than half 2017 levels. Cepsa cites “scheduled maintenance turnarounds in Algeria” as a key reason for a fall in 9M 2023 upstream output versus a year earlier, as well as the sell-off of its UAE assets (MEES, 3 March). *Algerian state gi...
Volume: 66Issue: 46Published at Fri, 17 Nov 2023 -
Cairo Eases Power Cuts Amid Returning Volumes of Israel Gas
...ypt initially brought in two FSRUs to import LNG in 2015 as gas demand outstripped domestic gas output. But with the 2017 start-up of the 21.5tcf Zohr field domestic gas output soared (see chart, p2) and the need to import LNG lessened: Egypt most recently imported LNG in September 2018. For security of...
Volume: 66Issue: 45Published at Fri, 10 Nov 2023 -
Iran’s Oil Exports At Post-Sanctions Record
...NDENSATE. ^SEIZED CARGOS. ^^MOSTLY TO CHINA SINCE 2018. SOURCE: KPLER (2017-18), UANI (2019>), MEES. Unlike in the pre-sanctions era, Iran is overwhelmingly reliant on China for its exports, to the tune of 85% in volume terms for 8M 2023 and likely substantially more in revenue terms given that ca...
Volume: 66Issue: 36Published at Fri, 08 Sep 2023 -
KRG Begins Baghdad Mandated Crude Supplies
...mplex in Erbil. The 60,000 b/d ‘Nineveh refinery’ portion of the refining complex is typically contracted by the ministry of oil to refine Kirkuk crude produced by North Oil Company (NOC), as part of an arrangement first agreed in 2017 (MEES, 24 February 2017). The remaining 90,000-100,000 b/d ‘KAR-1’ an...
Volume: 66Issue: 30Published at Fri, 28 Jul 2023 -
Saudi-China Conference Highlights Growing Ties
...e US as the world’s largest importer with 8.40mn b/d in 2017, with volumes soaring further to a record 10.86mn b/d in 2020 as it gorged on cheap oil amid the pandemic. Chinese imports have since dropped but still averaged 10.2mn b/d last year. This has been mirrored in the two countries’ re...
Volume: 66Issue: 24Published at Fri, 16 Jun 2023 -
Iraq-KRG Oil Talks Resume But Wide Differences Remain
...oup, the firm gave up a 60% stake in June 2017 to Russian state-firm Rosneft (MEES, 16 June 2017) which brought capacity to the current 950,000 b/d. Although typically only around half of this is being utilised (see chart). Moving ownership from Kar and Rosneft to INOC in the future would be pr...
Volume: 66Issue: 09Published at Fri, 03 Mar 2023 -
KRG’s Oil Sector Hangs By A Thread As Iraq-Turkey Arbitration Nears Closure
...,000 b/d through the link. PIPELINE TO THE WORLD The stretch of pipeline in Kurdistan was built and operated by domestic firm KAR and had an initial capacity of 300,000 b/d. This was expanded to 700,000 b/d and then in June 2017 Russian state-firm Rosneft took a 60% stake and invested in ex...
Volume: 66Issue: 05Published at Fri, 03 Feb 2023 -
Kuwaiti Government Resigns. Again
...quired to ease the government’s reliance on direct oil revenues by tapping into its dollar reserves has been stuck since October 2017. With government ministers objecting to the debt relief bill, and MPs seeking to “grill” two cabinet ministers, the cabinet opted to resign. Prime Minister Sheikh Ah...
Volume: 66Issue: 04Published at Fri, 27 Jan 2023 -
Intra-Kurdish Rift Risks United Position In Baghdad
...ghdad. That is no longer the case, especially since the 2017 death of PUK founder and long-time leader Jalal Talabani. With the KDP and PUK backing different factions in last year’s lengthy government formation process, the fissures between the two deepened further (MEES, 17 June 2022). That melodrama ha...
Volume: 66Issue: 03Published at Fri, 20 Jan 2023 -
Can Iraq Use Gulf Football Tournament To Score GCC Investment Hike?
...fice. Saudi Arabia’s newfound willingness to deal with its northern neighbor then became more apparent from 2017 (MEES, 27 October 2017). The appointment of Mr Maliki’s close-ally, new Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani, has been met with initial wariness from Riyadh (MEES, 18 November 2022), with hi...
Volume: 66Issue: 02Published at Fri, 13 Jan 2023