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U.S.-Led Coalition Responsible for 229 Civilian Deaths Since 2014 in Iraq, Syria Strikes KTLA At a time of growing concern about civilian casualties in Iraq, the U.S.-led coalition issued a report Saturday that says at least 229 civilians likely have been killed by coalition strikes there and in Syria since Operation Inherent Resolve began ... Iraq hospital struggles with Mosul's injured -- and its deadLA Daily News Four civilians killed in February in US-led strikes in IraqThe Hill (blog) Mosul is falling. This is the end of the 'caliphate' in IraqThe Sydney Morning Herald Los Angeles Times -New York Post -UN News Centre -Amnesty International all 735 news articles »

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U.S.-Led Coalition Responsible for 229 Civilian Deaths Since 2014 in Iraq, Syria Strikes - KTLA

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Why Trump, Against His Instincts, Spared Iraq From the Travel Ban ... Wall Street Journal (subscription) National-security officials, after getting an earful from Iraq on why it did not belong on a list of restricted countries, quietly made their case to the presidentwho ... and more »

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Why Trump, Against His Instincts, Spared Iraq From the Travel Ban ... - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Iraq's compliance stands now at 98 percent, the nation's oil minister Jabar al-Luaibi told reporters, after addressing a conference in the Iraqi capital, also attended by Barkindo.

Compliance with the deal agreed by OPEC and non-OPEC producers at the end of last year to cut supply is "encouraging," Barkindo told the forum.

General compliance with supply cuts by the oil producers was 86 percent in January and 94 percent in February, he added.

The market is already balancing, Barkindo said, adding stocks of crude were coming down.

Luaibi said he was satisfied with the existing deal, but declined to say whether Iraq would support an extension, leaving it to an OPEC ministerial meeting planned in May.

The current deal, he said, "contains many positive elements and achieved a lot of targets; work is ongoing to reach the reduction of 1.8" million barrels per day agreed by OPEC and 11 other nations including Russia for their combined production in the first half of 2017.

The accord has lifted crude to about $50 a barrel. But the price gain has also encouraged U.S. shale oil producers, which are not part of the pact, to boost output.

While Iraq is committed to achieving 100 percent of its target reduction, it will proceed with projects to boost oil production capacity to 5 million barrels per day before the end of the year, Luaibi said.

OPEC's second-largest producer, after Saudi Arabia, Iraq will proceed in parallel with exploration plans to increase its reserves by 15 billion barrels in 2018, to reach 178 billion barrels, he said.

Among the plans to increase output capacity from existing fields is a sea water injection plan which is in process of being tendered, he added.

Iraq's oil production has averaged 4.464 million barrels per day so far in March, a reduction of more than 300,000 bpd on levels before OPEC cuts were implemented from Jan. 1, state-oil marketer SOMO said on Thursday.

Average crude exports were 3.756 million bpd in March, versus a record of more than 4 million bpd in November, according to SOMO.

Most of Iraq's crude is exported from southern ports, the region where it is produced. Exports from the south averaged 3.2 million bpd in March, Luaibi said.

Barkindo described as "very constructive" meetings he had on Saturday with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and other Iraqi leaders in Baghdad.

Iraq's natural gas output will triple to 1,700 million cubic feet per day by 2018, as it implements projects to reduce flaring, Luaibi told the conference.

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Iraq has pledged to fully comply with oil cut deal, OPEC chief says - Daily Republic

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April 2, 2017, 1:00 PM EDT

A territorial dispute in northern Iraq threatens to disrupt oil output at a field containing as much crude as Norway, even asU.S.-backed forces prepare what could be a decisive blow against Islamic State militants in the nearby city of Mosul. Kirkuk, where Iraq first discovered oil in 1927, can produce more than 1 million barrels a day but is pumping at less than half its capacity while competing ethnic and political groups scramble to control its 9 billion barrels of reserves.

Lying near a disputed city of the same name, the Kirkuk field is a tinderbox for potential conflict between the central government and Iraqs semi-autonomous Kurds, both of whom have for decades claimed it as their own. More recently, it also became became a flashpoint for rival Kurdish political parties and their heavily armed supporters. As Islamic State becomes less of a pressing threat, a lot of these tensions that had been subsumed into the common fight are inevitably going to come back to the surface, says Richard Mallinson, an analyst at consultant Energy Aspects Ltd.

Iraqs central government and theKurdistan Regional Government both pump oil from different wells at the field, which straddles their respective areas of control.Kurdish forces took control of territory around Kirkuk in June 2014 after the Iraqi Army fled from Islamic State militants, but the federal government in Baghdad doesnt recognize Kurdish control of the area. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, which leads Kirkuks local government and maintains the citys security, is a rival to the Kurdistan Democratic Party that dominates the KRG and controls most of its oil revenues.

Kirkuk and nearby fields are producing about half a million barrels of oil daily, according to data supplied by the Oil Ministry and the KRG in September 2016. Most of the crude is exported through a Kurdish-controlled pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. The KRG produces about 350,000 barrels a day, and the state-run North Oil Co. approximately 150,000. The two sides reached a deal in August 2016 allowing North Oil to export through the Kurdish pipeline. In return, the KRG takes a cut of the revenue and gets to export its own share of crude from Kirkuk. Iraq, the second-biggest OPEC member, pumped a total of 4.44 million barrels a day in February, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Oil prices fell more than 2 percent after the agreement as it was expected to increase exports by about 150,000 barrels.

The export deal doesnt address the competing claims to Kirkuks oil, or the larger dispute over the KRGs right to produce and export oil independently of the central government. The deal also left out Kirkuks PUK-led provincial government, stoking tensions between the two main Kurdish parties. On March 2, soldiers loyal to the PUK stormed North Oils main pumping facility at Kirkuk and briefly halted exports of more than 100,000 barrels a day. They threatened to cut off those exports permanently unless Iraqs Oil Ministry agreed to share revenue from crude pumped there and to develop local energy projects.

The KDP and PUK are uneasy coalition partners in the KRG, having fought a civil war with each other in the 1990s. They mobilized independently against Islamic State in 2014, a year when oil prices plunged by half, straining the KRGs budget. Tensions between them are at their highest level since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, says Shwan Zulal, managing director of Carduchi Consulting: Since the money ran out, theres been a bit of a fight for resources.

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Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi reached an agreement with the PUK in emergency talks on March 7, prompting the party to lift its immediate threat of shutting in exports. PUK officials said the prime minister had promised to implement an accord reached in January under which the Oil Ministry would give Kirkuk a share of oil revenues, develop local refineries and power plants, and also supply them with oil.

A collapse of this accord couldcut off North Oils access to the KRGs export pipeline and immediately remove at least 100,000 barrels a day from world markets. Perhaps more importantly, it could push the central government back into open dispute with the KRG, throwing up legal hurdles for anyone wanting to produce or transport crude from the Kurdish region itself. If the government doesnt abide by its commitments to Kirkuk, people across all communities and parties could rise up again, says Ahmed Al-Askari, head of the Kirkuk assemblys energy committee and a PUK member.

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A Squabble at Iraq's Oldest Oil Field Could Rock Global Supplies - Bloomberg

BAGHDAD (AP) Iraq's oil minister said on Sunday that his country plans to increase daily crude oil production to 5 million barrels by the end of this year, up from the current rate of about 4.4 million barrels per day, to secure sorely needed cash for its ailing economy.

Iraq, where oil revenues make up nearly 95 percent of the budget, has been reeling under an economic crisis since 2014, when oil prices began their descent from a high of above $100 a barrel. The Islamic State group's onslaught, starting in 2014, has exacerbated the situation forcing Iraq to divert much of its resources to a long and costly war.

Addressing an energy conference in Baghdad, Oil Minister Jabar Ali Al-Luaibi didn't give details on which of the country's oil fields would supply the increased output.

Late last year, Iraq joined a deal by OPEC and non-OPEC members to lower production for six months by 1.8 million barrels a day in order to prop up global oil prices. The mutual production decrease began on Jan. 1. Iraq's share in the deal is to reduce output by 210,000 barrels a day to 4.351 million barrels.

"There are positive elements in that deal and we achieved a lot of its targets," al-Luaibi told reporters on the sideline of the conference. "Work and cooperation are underway ... to reach the 1.8 (million barrels a day) reduction," he added, without divulging whether Iraq is going to support an extension to that deal.

OPEC Secretary General, Mohammed Barkindo, said the compliance among the participants was 86 percent in January and 94 percent in February. Barkindo told reporters that OPEC members would consider whether to extend the production decrease agreement at a meeting next month. The deal propped up the crude price to around $50 per barrel.

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Iraq holds the world's fourth-largest oil reserves. This year, it added 10 billion barrels, bringing its total reserves up to 153.1 billion barrels. Al-Luaibi also said that more 15 billion barrels are planned to be added by 2018.

Iraq's 2017 budget stands at about 100.67 trillion Iraqi dinars, or nearly $85.17 billion, running with a deficit of 21.65 trillion dinars, or about $18.32 billion. That's based on an estimated oil price of $42 per barrel and daily export capacity of 3.75 million barrels.

Iraq is also grappling with a major humanitarian crisis. The U.N. estimates that more than 3 million people have been forced from their homes since 2014. It also faces growing dissatisfaction among residents of areas recaptured from IS who have had their properties demolished and suffer from scarce public services.

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Iraq to Boost Crude Oil Production by Year's End: Minister - Fox Business