Mediaboss Marketing

Iraq's Oil Minister Jabar Ali al-Luaibi talks to journalists during a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna, Austria, November 30, 2016. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader -

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq plans to acquire a "large fleet" of oil tankers to transport the OPEC nation's crude to global markets, Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi said in a statement on Friday.

The nation's tanker fleet was largely destroyed during the U.S.-led offensive to dislodge Iraq from Kuwait in 1991, according to the state-run Iraqi Oil Tankers Company's website. The company owned as many as 24 tankers in the 1980s.

"The ministry is keen to restructure the company and develop its operations by building and buying a large fleet of tankers," Luaibi told the company's management, according to the statement.

Iraq is OPEC's second-largest producer, after Saudi Arabia.

(Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Adrian Croft)

More:
Iraq plans to acquire 'large fleet' of oil tankers - Yahoo Finance

The Islamic State terror network claimed responsibility for two bombings that each killed dozens of people Thursday -- one at a shrine in Pakistan and one at an auto dealership in Iraq.

ISIS USING KIDNAPPED YAZIDI CHILDREN IN SUICIDE MISSIONS

The suicide bomber at the world-famous shrine in southern Pakistan killed at least 75 people and wounding more than 200 others, according to health officials. They said the dead included 20 women and nine children.

Also Thursday, a car bombexploded in Baghdad's southwestern al-Bayaa neighborhood shortly before sunset, killing at least 55 people and wounding more than 60 others, according to Iraq's Interior Ministry. It was the third blast to hit the Iraqi capital in three days,the BBC reported.

The terror group claimed the bombings through its Amaq media agency.

SPECIAL OPS CHIEF: TROOPS HAVE KILLED 60,000 ISIS MILITANTS THE PAST TWO YEARS

ISIS has carried out near-daily attacks in Baghdad even as U.S.-backed Iraqi troops regain ground from the terror group. The military has engaged in an intense operation to regain the ISIS hub of Mosul in northern Iraq since October.

In Pakistan, the attacker walked through a gold plated door and entered the main hall of the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, named after the famous Sufi saint buried there, in the town of Sehwan in the southern Sindh province. Then, security officials said he detonated his suicide jacket as hundreds of worshippers were performing their weekly mystical dance -- called Dhamal.

In a strongly-worded statement, Pakistan's army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa said "each drop of nation's blood shall be revenged, and revenged immediately. No more restraint for anyone."State-run Pakistan Television quoted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif as saying the country's military and other security forces would use all their resources to track down and arrest the culprits.

"I saw bodies everywhere. I saw bodies of women and children,"Raja Somro, who was inside the shrine at the time of the attack, told a local TV network.

The military reported it was dispatching troops to contribute to the relief effort.

The U.S. condemned the Baghdad attack. "These acts of mass murder are yet another example of ISISs utter contempt for human life and its efforts to sow discord and division among the Iraqi people. Our partnership with the Iraqi Security Forces, who serve on the front-lines of this global fight, remains steadfast and unwavering," State Dept.spokesman Mark Toner responded.

ISIS claimed the Baghdad attack targeted Shiites. Earlier, a police officer and medical official told The Associated Press the bombing targeted automobile agents and dealers.

Another four attacks in and around the Iraqi capital on Thursday killed eight people and wounded around 30, police and medical officials said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Continue reading here:
ISIS bombings kill dozens in Iraq and Pakistan - Fox News

The old expression, to the victor belong the spoilsyou remember. I always used to say, keep the oil. I wasnt a fan of Iraq. I didnt want to go into Iraq. But I will tell you, when we were in, we got out wrongwe should have kept the oil.

Those were President Trumps comments at the CIA the day after his inauguration in January. President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that the U.S. should have taken Iraqs oil, an argument that he revisited as recently as last week. Weve spent $6 trillionin the Middle East, President Trump said during a meeting with airline executives at the White House on February 9. Weve got nothing. Weve got nothing. We never even kept a small, even a tiny oil well. Not one little oil well. I said, Keep the oil.

The notion that the U.S. military should have taken Iraqs oil, it should be said at the outset, is flatly illegal. "What Trump seems to be advocating here would be a fundamental violation of international law embodied in numerous international agreements and in recognized principles of customary international law," Anthony Clark Arend, a Georgetown University professor of government and foreign service, told PolitiFact last year.

It would also stretch the imagination to envision how such a strategy would play out in reality. Iraqs oil sector is made up of a mix of state-owned interests and private ones. Most of the investment going into Iraqs enormous southern oil fields come from international companies, such as BP, ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Statoil, CNPC and Lukoil. Kurdish oil fields in the north are also run mostly by international companies. It is not clear what taking the oil really looks like.

Ive always thought that was beyond stupid. In other words, I dont even know what it means, John McLaughlin, former Deputy Director of the CIA under the Clinton and Bush administrations, told the New Yorker Radio Hour last week. Try and operationalize that. Does that mean sending troops to surround oil wells while you pump it out, then transport it out of the country? Or does it mean something else? I have no idea what hes talking about. So I assume it wont happen. So Im not worried about it.

On top of that, taking Iraqs oil, however that played out, would be a political nightmare. While some might dismiss the comments as just talk, even the suggestion of taking Iraqs oil is already having a negative effect. The comments, combined with the travel ban that the Trump administration ordered on seven majority-Muslim countries in the Middle East, including Iraq, has sparked a backlash against the U.S. in Iraq.

The Iraqi public and Iraqi members of parliament are pressuring Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to scale back its cooperation with the U.S. government and military, which could jeopardize the long-term presence of American troops in Iraq. This is potentially an enormous and underreported development given that it is a top priority of the U.S. government to fight ISIS in Iraq and Syria. In fact, U.S. troops have been cooperating with Iraqi forces for months on a major campaign to retake Mosul, a mission that is set to ramp up again in the near future to take the western portion of the city.

"Trump embarrassed al-Abadi," Saad al-Mutalabi, a lawmaker and ally of former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, told the AP. "There will be a general consensus that Americans should not stay in Iraq after Mosul, after the statements and the executive order from Trump," he said. "We believed that we had a strategic agreement with the U.S."

A narrowing of the U.S. presence in Iraq would serve to benefit Iran, dealing another blow to the Trump administration. And speaking of Iran, Shiite militias inside Iraq told the AP that they would target U.S. interests if the U.S. went after Iran, their benefactor.

President Trumps reckless comments about taking Iraqs oil, in other words, are undermining multiple U.S. strategic goals all at once. In the minds of a lot of Iraqis, they also confirm the worst: that the 2003 U.S. invasion was all about access to Iraqs oil, something top American officials have always denied.

The stakes are high, with Iraq fighting a war against ISIS while trying to revive its oil sector. Oil revenues account for 93 percent of Iraqs revenue, and the country is struggling under the weight of an expensive war and low oil prices. Iraq needs its oil to rebuild, and any effort to squeeze the government by the U.S. would be counterproductive to Iraqs well-being, to say the least. President Trumps shoot from the hip style has earned him some degree of domestic support, but he is in the process of needlessly burning bridges with some of the countries that he will need the most.

By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:

See the original post here:
Trump Burning Bridges In Iraq Over Take The Oil Comments - Yahoo Finance

Iraqi crude shipments rose 3 percent in the first half of February even after OPECs second-biggest producer agreed to participate in global output cuts to mop up a glut that has put pressure on oil prices.

Exports increased to 3.93 million barrels a day in the first 15 days of the month, 122,000 barrels a day more than the average for all of January, according to port-agent reports and ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. Shipments from the southern Iraqi port of Basra grew by 10 percent, while sales by the Kurdish Regional Government in the north of the country were up 13 percent, the data show.

The most important business stories of the day.

Get Bloomberg's daily newsletter.

Iraq pledged to decrease production by 210,000 barrels a day fromthe 3.91 million it pumped in October, the month that OPEC set as a baseline for its agreement.

The February mid-month tally is a sign of how much crude the country is selling, though total shipments for the full month may not end up reflecting this trend due to the high winds and rough seas that often interrupt loadings during Iraqs winter months. The country plans to export about3.64 million barrels a day in all of February, according to a loading program.

Iraqs March oil exports may decline to a seven-month low of3.01 million barrels a day, according toloading programs obtained by Bloomberg. Shipments typically slump in March because of weaker seasonal demand. This, together with maintenance at some of Iraqs biggest fields, may help the producer meet its pledge under OPECs deal to restrict supply.

The International Energy Agency reported this month that Iraq cut output by 110,000 barrels a day in January. OPEC, citing data from so-called secondary sources such as analysts and tanker trackers, said Iraq cut 166,000 barrels in the same month.

Go here to see the original:
Iraq's February Oil Sales Accelerate Despite OPEC Effort to Cut - Bloomberg

KARACHI AND BAGHDAD // Bombings claimed by ISIL killed more than 120 people in Pakistan and Iraq on Thursday, and injured more than 200 others.

The majority of the casualties were at a Sufi shrine in the town of Sehwan in Pakistans Sindh province.

Police said a suicide bomber entered the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, a 13th-century Muslim saint, and blew himself up among the devotees.

The shrine was crowded as Thursday is considered a sacred day for prayers.

"So far 70 people have been killed and more than 150 wounded," the Sindh provincial police chief A D Khawaja said.

"Many wounded people are in critical condition and they will be shifted to Karachi as soon as navy helicopters and C-130 planes reach the nearest airport."

Sehwan is about 200 kilometres north-east of Karachi, the provincial capital.

ISIL claimed the attack through its online Amaq propaganda agency, which also attributed a deadly car bombing in southern Baghdad to the extremist group.

That attack was carried out at a busy used-car market in the Bayaa neighbourhood.

At least 52 people were killed and more than 50 others wounded, an interior ministry official said.

He said the emergency services were struggling to cope with the scope of the attack, which ripped through the car market at around 4.15pm, and warned that the death toll may rise.

There was a large crater at the site of the bombing, which is an open space used as a second-hand car market where hundreds of private sellers park their vehicles and wait for prospective buyers.

Both Pakistan and Iraq have been hit by a series of militant attacks this week.

The blast at the car market was in the same neighbourhood where a car bombing killed at least four people on Tuesday.

At least 11 people were killed in a suicide car bombing claimed by ISIL on Wednesday on the edge of the northern Baghdad neighbourhood of Sadr City.

In Pakistan, a suicide bombing in Lahore killed 13 people and wounded dozens more on Monday, in an attack claimed by the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar faction of the Pakistani Taliban. Four suicide bombers struck in the countrys north-west on Wednesday, killing six people.

Thursdays bombings come as ISIL faces increasing pressure in territory it holds in Iraq and Syria. The extremists were last month driven out of the eastern half of Mosul city, their last major urban stronghold in Iraq. In Syria, government forces and a US-backed coalition of Syrian and Arab fighters are closing in on the city of Raqqa, the groups self-declared capital.

* Agence France-Presse

Read the original:
More than 120 killed in ISIL bombings in Iraq and Pakistan - The National