Iraq Financial News

Iraq has declared a curfew in the ethnically-mixed city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq after clashes involving Kurds, Arabs and Turkmens. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani, who also leads the Iraqi armed forces, on Saturday ordered the curfew in Kirkuk province and initiated search operations in the areas that had witnessed riots, Xinhua news agency reported. Al-Sudani stressed that the security forces «must be firm in arresting anyone who dares to tamper with the security of Kirkuk, from any party, and not allow the carrying of weapons at all, except for the security services,» according to a statement released by the Iraqi armed forces. The disturbance erupted on Saturday when Arabs and Turkmens protesting the planned return of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) to its old headquarters in the city of Kirkuk, nearly 250 km north of Baghdad, clashed with Kurds at the site.

Mumbai: Amid Uday Kotak's unanticipated resignation as the CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank, three months ahead of schedule, it's an opportune time to revisit the bank's inception in 2003 and Uday Kotak's response to the RBI's granting of a banking license to the then non-bank lender. Kotak Mahindra Bank founder Uday Kotak believed that the approval granted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 2003 to convert non-bank lender Kotak Mahindra Finance into a bank was a vote of trust. “More than anything else, this is a vote of trust.

Trent Telenko, a former official at the Pentagon’s Defense Contract Management Agency who has studied Russian military logistics. Extending the front to within 6 miles “will make Tokmak useless as a road-rail transportation node," said Telenko. At that distance, Ukrainian artillery can stay about 10 miles behind the front, which he said is a sufficient distance to be relatively safe from Russian counter-battery fire.

“Our dependence on Russian oil is going to decrease sharply,” Oil Minister Hardeep Puri said in an interview. “The cost viability from the Gulf is much more attractive now.” India’s consumption of Russian crude has soared since President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year, ousting Saudi Arabia and Iraq from the top spots.

India’s appetite for cheap Russian oil took a breather in August as monsoon rains dampened demand and refiners scheduled routine maintenance works. The world’s third largest oil consumer reduced imports from Moscow for the third consecutive month in August to 1.57 million barrels a day, down 24% on the month and bringing them to their lowest since January, according to data intelligence firm Kpler. Indian refiners also cut shipments from Iraq, another top supplier, by 10% on the month in August to 848,000 barrels a day. Some of those volumes were replaced by a sharp surge in imports from Saudi Arabia, which rose 63% on month to 852,000 barrels a day, the data showed.India’s consumption of Russian crude has soared since last year, hitting a peak 2.15 million barrels a day in May, as refiners vied for heavily discounted shipments.Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd., whose unit has a capacity of 301,000 barrels a day, lowered imports by two-thirds.

The reputation of India’s pharmaceutical industry is now truly at stake with the World Health Organization and the US Food and Drug Administration raising red flags on medicines made in the country.The World Health Organization (WHO) this month issued an alert after a batch of cough syrup made by Fourrts (India) Laboratories and sold in Iraq was found to have unacceptable levels of contaminants.

(Reuters) -3M said on Tuesday it had agreed to pay $6 billion to settle nearly 260,000 lawsuits accusing it of selling defective combat earplugs that caused hearing loss in hundreds of thousands of current and former U.S. military service members.

By Brendan Pierson

While serving as an officer in the U.S. Army, Brad Genser knew he wanted to find a way into the financial services industry when he returned to civilian life. Both of his parents were insurance agents, and Genser grew up around the table as his parents helped shape their clients’ futures.

By Natalie Grover

The “Don’t Extradite Assange Campaign,” dedicated to gathering support against the extradition of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to the United States, is launching a virtual political rally in the metaverse.

By Natalie Grover and Paul Carsten

crude oil imports from Russia dipped for the first time in nine months, while inbound shipments from Saudi Arabia tumbled to their lowest in 2-1/2 years following OPEC+ cuts, tanker data from trade and industry sources showed. Both China and India, the world's biggest and third-biggest oil importers, cut imports from Russia and Saudi Arabia in July after prices rose and as the two oil producers reduced output and crude oil shipments. Saudi Arabia volunteered to cut output by another 1 million barrels per day (bpd) from July through September, and Russia will reduce exports in August by 500,000 bpd, part of a deal among members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, a grouping know as OPEC+, to curb supplies and support prices. India's overall imports also declined 5.2% from June to 4.4 million bpd oil in July, the data showed, as several refining plants are shut for maintenance during monsoon season.Russian oil imports declined 5.7% to 1.85 million bpd and Saudi shipments fell by 26% to 470,000 bpd, the data showed. India imports more than 80% of its overall oil needs. Indian refiners that have been diversifying their oil import sources to cut costs began snapping up Russian oil at a discount as some Western companies stopped purchasing from Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. India's import of Russian oil may now decline further in August and September, however, as refiners plan maintenance at their plants and as Russian crude prices are above the $60-a-barrel ceiling imposed by the European Union and G7 economies after spot discounts shrank, sources said. Russia was still the top oil supplier to India in July, though, followed by Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Iraq's oil minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani arrived in the Turkish capital Ankara to discuss several issues including the resumption of oil exports through the Ceyhan oil terminal, a source in the minister's office told Reuters on Monday.

Also read: Bahrain Steel to supply iron ore pellets to Essar's green steel project in Saudi Arabia For years, Iran and Saudi Arabia had been engaged in a bitter rivalry for influence in various Middle Eastern countries. Rivalry between Iran's revolutionary, Shi'ite Muslim leaders and Saudi Arabia's Sunni ruling family dominated the Middle East. This rivalry had led to sectarian tensions and conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Bahrain.

World Humanitarian Day is marked on August 19 every year in a bid to save and protect lives around the globe. The occassion is observed to take congizance of the work done by humanitarians around the world in order to meet the ever-growing global needs by venturing into diaster-striken regions and on the front lines in order to save and protect the lives of people.

Abu Dhabi National Energy Co. PJSC (TAQA) is looking to double down in India and is evaluating a large exposure in the expansive power businesses of Gautam Adani that span thermal generation to transmission, clean energy and green hydrogen, said people aware of the matter. TAQA, among the largest integrated utilities in Europe, West Asia and Africa and also the second largest stock on Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX), is keen to deploy $1.5-2.5 billion in Adani Group firms or in a single entity, said the sources mentioned above.

Plain Facts publishes a compilation of data-based insights, complete with easy-to-read charts, to help you delve deeper into the stories reported by Mint in the week gone by. Retail inflation unexpectedly surpassed the 7%-mark in July due to high vegetable prices, Samsung will receive the highest payout under the government’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for mobile manufacturing, and Russia surpassed Iraq as India’s largest supplier of crude oil. Retail inflation in India hit a 15-month high of 7.4% in July on account of a sharp rise in vegetable prices.

Energy-rich countries across the Middle East and North Africa are struggling to keep power flowing to their own citizens during intense summer heat, with Egypt the latest to impose rolling blackouts. The outages here have prompted concerns that Cairo’s domestic gas supply is running low. Iran and Iraq, both oil exporters, are also facing blackouts as blistering temperatures envelop the region, with the thermometer reaching 122 degrees Fahrenheit in Baghdad, buckling aging power grids.

New Delhi Crude oil imports from Russia rose nearly three-fold in the first quarter of this fiscal compared to the same period of FY23, according to government data. Oil imports from Russia during the three months to June stood at $12.36 billion, 170.66% higher on a year-on-year basis. During the same period last fiscal, the imports stood at $4.57 billion, showed data from the ministry of commerce and industry.

The United Nations’ human rights chief has warned that Iraq’s water crisis could affect other countries in the region