Iraqi oil After months of street protests and political paralysis, the Iraqi parliament approved five of six cabinet nominees by Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi, including the country’s new oil minister—a move that could signal a significantly positive shift in Iraqi policy towards the Iraqi Kurdistan region regarding oil and natural gas issues. Jabar Ali al-Luaibi, the former chief of South Oil Company, Iraq’s largest crude oil producer, was sworn in to the top oil ministry position earlier this week. Iraq, the second largest oil-producing member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) after Saudi Arabia, produces 4.6 million barrels of crude oil every day. Most of the supplies come from operations in the southern portion of the country, are run under South Oil Company. In an interview with the Baghdad-based Sumaria TV, Luaibi noted that issues between the two parties are fundamentally resolvable. “There are solutions to the […]