Modern Iraq is all about oil. It exists for and because of it. Its turmoil and troubles are due to it. Wars have been waged on the country’s soil because of the black gold mine that lies under the ground. Iraq has ‘one of the world’s great hydrocarbon preserves,’ with proven oil reserves of 115 [...]

The sorry state of its facilities, a decade of international embargo, successive wars, and the alarming state of its finances today forced Iraq to reopen its oil deposits to foreign capital and expertise.
The decision of the government of Nouri al-Maliki to auction ‘service contracts’ for the operation of Iraq’s six largest oil fields and two [...]