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Iraq is planning a $53 billion megaproject with global energy giants ExxonMobil and PetroChina to use seawater from the Persian Gulf to boost oil production, Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi announced Tuesday. The 30-year project would boost output from Iraq’s southern oil fields, and includes designs to capture natural gas, which is currently lost to flaring, for production, Abdel-Mahdi said at a press conference. Iraq is producing oil at record levels, but officials are targeting even higher output to meet budget projections and finance reconstruction projects following 16 years of war. Output averaged 4.5 million barrels per day in March, second...

Iraq's oil exports reached their highest level in decades in December, the oil ministry's spokesman said on Saturday, but vital revenues were being hit by the plummeting prices of crude. Iraq exported 91.141 million barrels of oil in December for an average of 2.94 million barrels per day, the highest daily average since 1980, Assem Jihad told AFP, citing initial figures. December exports were far and away the highest in 2014, eclipsing the previous best month by more than 11 million barrels, according to ministry figures. But revenues were $5.247 billion, only up slightly on November and much lower than...

On the tenth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, the back-and-forth recriminations continue, but in all the “not me” defenses, we have forgotten, over the ensuing decade, the climate of 2003 and why we invaded in the first place. The war was predicated on six suppositions. 1. 9/11 and the 1991 Gulf War. The Bush administration made the argument that in the post-9/11 climate there should be a belated reckoning with Saddam Hussein. He had continued to sponsor terrorism, had over the years invaded or attacked four of his neighbors, and had killed tens of thousands of his own people....

Despite the US's declared withdrawal of its military personnel and contractors out of Iraq, Washington has prepared to control the country's rich oil reserves in any case, shared Ranjit Singh Kalha, former India's ambassador to Iraq in the 1990s. ­Having spent $3 trillion in Iraq, a country with harsh weather conditions (+50 C most of the time) and absolutely nothing valuable but oil reserves, the Americans simply cannot give up the plentiful and very high quality oil they went there for. "It takes $1.50 to take out this oil that's just below the surface. Anybody who has access to this...

Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said on Friday that 80 dollars a barrel is a "reasonable" price for oil and that his country would support any OPEC decision to cut output. "A reasonable price for oil is 80 dollars a barrel," said Shahristani on arrival in Cairo to attend a consultative meeting by the OPEC cartel to study slumping crude prices. "We have to make sure that produced oil is used for consumption and not for storing. "Iraq would support a decision by OPEC to cut output either here or in Algeria," the Iraqi minister added. Organization of Petroleum Exporting...

Iraq could hold almost twice as much oil in its reserves as had been thought, according to the most comprehensive independent study of its resources since the US-led invasion in 2003. The potential presence of a further 100bn barrels in the western desert highlights the opportunity for Iraq to be one of the world’s biggest oil suppliers, and its attractions for international oil companies – if the conflict in the country can be resolved. If confirmed, it would raise Iraq from the world’s third largest source of oil reserves with 116bn barrels to second place, behind Saudi Arabia and overtaking...

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's prickly self-confidence and faith in the moral imperative of American leadership have earned him detractors around the globe - while also making him one of President Bush's closest advisers on national security. This may also explain why the scrappiest cabinet member has survived one flap after another: He embodies many core Bush administration values. "Rumsfeld has been pivotal to this administration," says Loren Thompson, a defense expert here. "The president agrees with most of what Rumsfeld believes about the world, and he's much more dependent on Rumsfeld for advice" than on other cabinet members. Yet with...

A Way to End the Insurgency- Give All Iraqis an Interest in the Country's Vast Oil Resources. Real peace will come to Iraq when its citizens join together to support their central government. This can best be done by giving all Iraqis a real financial interest in their country's oil resources. With such a program in place, citizens will find it in their own interest to support the government and assist in preventing the insurgency. This is far from a new idea as such a citizen benefit has already been established in the State of Alaska. The following proposal by...

Frontpage Interview has the pleasure to have Kenneth Timmerman, author of the new book The French Betrayal of America, as its guest today. A senior writer at Insight Magazine, Mr. Timmerman has spent twenty years reporting on Europe and the Middle East. He is also the author of Preachers of Hate: Islam and the War on America . Visit his website at www.KenTimmerman.com. FP: Mr. Timmerman welcome back to Frontpage Interview, it is a pleasure to have you with us again. Timmerman: Thanks, Jamie. Frontpage is one of the rare bright spots in today's media, which is dominated by the...

March 1, 2004 A Revival for Iraq's Oil Industry as Output Nears Prewar Levels By NEELA BANERJEE AGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 29 — Iraq's oil industry has undergone a remarkable turnaround and is now producing and exporting almost as much crude oil as it did before the war, according to officials with the American-led occupation and the Iraqi oil ministry. A month before the April 1 deadline set by Iraq and American officials for restoring the industry to prewar levels, the country is producing 2.3 million to 2.5 million barrels a day, compared with 2.8 million barrels a day before the...

The United States military has deployed five teams of 10 airborne snipers to defend Iraq's northern oil pipelines from acts of sabotage by forces loyal to ousted president Saddam Hussein. Sergeant Brian Stinson said final modifications were being made to Blackhawk UH-60 helicopters, before snipers from the elite Tiger Force could begin patrols along the crucial oil supply lines. "There is so much area to cover that it requires precision fire, we're on call for 24-hours a day and can be airborne within 30 minutes," he said. Protection of Iraq's northern pipelines, which stretch 500 kilometres to Turkey and almost...

<p>The intercepted vessel belongs to a United Arab Emirates company based in Dubai, British Navy Cmdr. Graeme Mackay said.</p> <p>The UAE vessel, Navstar 1, ignored three warnings from the HMS Sutherland to return to the southern Iraqi port of Umm Qasr, prompting the Royal Marines to board the ship and arrest the master and crew.</p>

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 19 -- U.S. oil companies have dramatically slashed imports of Iraqi oil over the past five months, contributing to a steep decline in Baghdad's oil exports and cutting into President Saddam Hussein's ability to siphon money from the U.N.-supervised oil-for-food program, according to U.S. and U.N. officials.