Iraq struggles to plug the financing gap amid low oil prices

Baghdad is facing a cash crisis, while losing control of its northern oil assets

Iraq’s oil minister, Adil Abdulmahdi, has overseen a sustained rise in oil output and exports this year that has propelled the country up the roster of Opec’s big guns. It has recovered territory it lost under Saddam Hussein. But a toxic mixture of low oil prices, Kurdish secessionism, and bitter conflict has left Baghdad bereft of cash and struggling to maintain control of its oil and gas resources. Even as it plots an ambitious growth in export capacity – targeting 3.68m barrels/day from the Basra oil terminals, a 26% increase on September’s cargoes and a rise on August’s 3.08m b/d – Iraq’s government finds itself under renewed pressure. Despite posting highest-ever crude production in the