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Iraq’s Kurdistan Works to Establish Two Oil Firms as Erbil-Baghdad Tensions Rise

A picture shows a view of the area around the citadel of Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, as dust engulfs the sector on May 24, 2022. (AFP)
A picture shows a view of the area around the citadel of Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, as dust engulfs the sector on May 24, 2022. (AFP)
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Iraq’s Kurdistan Works to Establish Two Oil Firms as Erbil-Baghdad Tensions Rise

A picture shows a view of the area around the citadel of Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, as dust engulfs the sector on May 24, 2022. (AFP)
A picture shows a view of the area around the citadel of Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, as dust engulfs the sector on May 24, 2022. (AFP)

Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is working to establish two oil firms, the latest move in the battle between Erbil and Baghdad to control the oil sector in the semi-autonomous region.

The KRG's new oil firm KROC would specialize in oil exploration, while the second - KOMO - would focus on oil exports and marketing from the semi-autonomous region, a spokesperson said in a statement on Friday.

The regional government has presented the idea and discussed it with the federal government in Baghdad recently, the KRG spokesperson said in a statement.

The statement follows months of disputes between Erbil and Baghdad after a February federal court ruling that deemed the legal foundations of the Kurdistan region's oil and gas sector unconstitutional.

The oil ministry in Baghdad has since made fresh attempts to control revenue from the Kurdistan region, including summoning seven firms operating there to a commercial court on May 19. The firms were Addax, DNO, Genel, Gulf Keystone, HKN, Shamaran and WesternZagros.

The commercial court sitting has been postponed twice as some of the representation for these international oil firms did not have power of attorney, several sources told Reuters. The court session is due to resume on Monday, June 20.

As well as announcing plans to establish its own oil company in the Kurdistan region, the Iraqi oil ministry has ordered international lead contractors and subcontractors through Basrah Oil (BOC) and Iraq's national oil firm (Inoc) to pledge not to work on contracts or projects there.

Through letters sent on June 7 and 12, the firms were given three months to terminate existing contracts or projects in the KRG oil sector or face being blacklisted, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The oil ministry is using two law firms - Vincent and Elkins and Cleary Gottlieb Steen and Hamilton - to help with gaining control of the KRG oil sector, according to two sources. Both firms have declined to comment.

The KRG has repeatedly rejected the federal court ruling. On June 5, the KRG's ministry of natural resources filed a civil suit against the minister of oil in Baghdad, Ihsan Ismael, for sending emails and letters to intimidate oil firms operating in the Kurdistan region and for interfering with the contractual rights of these firms and the KRG, according to a June 13 statement.

Also on June 5, the Erbil court of investigation ruled that the commercial court sessions against international oil firms must be brought to the Erbil court.

There have been years of attempts by the federal government to bring KRG revenues under its control, including local court rulings and threats of international arbitration.

The implications of the latest dispute are not fully clear as more than eight months since elections in Iraq, the formation of a government is still underway.

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Arab World

Iraq Official Says Drone Crashed near US Diplomats at Baghdad Airport

FILED - 14 March 2026, Iraq, Baghdad: A view of the damage following a reported drone strike on the US embassy in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone. Photo: Ameer Al-Mohammedawi/dpa
FILED - 14 March 2026, Iraq, Baghdad: A view of the damage following a reported drone strike on the US embassy in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone. Photo: Ameer Al-Mohammedawi/dpa
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Iraq Official Says Drone Crashed near US Diplomats at Baghdad Airport

FILED - 14 March 2026, Iraq, Baghdad: A view of the damage following a reported drone strike on the US embassy in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone. Photo: Ameer Al-Mohammedawi/dpa
FILED - 14 March 2026, Iraq, Baghdad: A view of the damage following a reported drone strike on the US embassy in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone. Photo: Ameer Al-Mohammedawi/dpa

A senior Iraqi security official told AFP that a drone crashed near a group of US diplomats inside the grounds of Baghdad's airport earlier this week as they were escorting an American journalist freed after a recent kidnapping.

The account shed light on a statement issued Thursday by the US State Department saying it had summoned Iraq's ambassador to Washington to express "strong condemnation" of attacks by pro-Iran groups on US interests, "including the April 8 ambush of US diplomats in Baghdad".

Since the war in the Middle East broke out on February 28, the US embassy in Baghdad and a logistical and diplomatic center inside the city's airport have been repeatedly targeted by rockets and drones, with most intercepted.

Pro-Iranian armed groups in Iraq have claimed daily attacks on "enemy bases" in the country and the wider region, but had said on Wednesday they were suspending their actions after the announcement of a temporary ceasefire between the US and Iran.

Hours later, however, the US embassy reported renewed drone attacks near its facility at the airport.

According to the Iraqi official, "the diplomatic support center was targeted on Wednesday by three drones".

"One of them fell at least 50 meters from a diplomatic team accompanying the American journalist Shelly Kittleson," they added.

Kittleson had been released by the powerful pro-Iranian group Kataeb Hezbollah on Tuesday, a week after she was kidnapped in Baghdad.

The attack delayed her departure from Iraq, though she was able to leave a few hours later, the source said.

Arab World

Gaza Civil Defense Says Israeli Strikes Kill Seven

Palestinians walk along a street surrounded by buildings destroyed during Israeli air and ground operations in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians walk along a street surrounded by buildings destroyed during Israeli air and ground operations in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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Gaza Civil Defense Says Israeli Strikes Kill Seven

Palestinians walk along a street surrounded by buildings destroyed during Israeli air and ground operations in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians walk along a street surrounded by buildings destroyed during Israeli air and ground operations in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Gaza's civil defense rescue service said on Saturday that Israeli airstrikes in the Palestinian territory had killed seven people overnight, despite the fragile ceasefire in place since October last year.

Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for the group, which operates under the authority of the Hamas movement, said an Israeli drone had fired two missiles close to a police post in the Al-Bureij refugee camp.

In addition to the seven dead, he said, several more people were wounded, four of them critically.

The al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza said it had received six bodies and seven wounded, "including four in a critical condition because of direct impacts to the face, torso and other parts of the body".

The nearby al-Awda hospital said it had received one fatality and two wounded.

Reached for comment by AFP, the Israeli military said it was working to verify the information.

Israel and Hamas regularly accuse each other of violating the ceasefire that came into effect on October 10, after two years of war triggered by the Palestinian movement's 2023 cross-border attack.

At least 738 Palestinians have been killed since the truce began, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which is under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

The Israeli army has reported five soldiers killed since the start of the truce.

Under the restrictions imposed on the media in Gaza and the difficulties of accessing the field -- the international press is still barred by the Israeli authorities from entering.

Arab World

In Gaza, Fiberglass Homes Aim to Offer More ‘Dignity’ for Displaced

Boys (C) play with a ball amid tents at a makeshift camp for displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on April 10, 2026. (AFP)
Boys (C) play with a ball amid tents at a makeshift camp for displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on April 10, 2026. (AFP)
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In Gaza, Fiberglass Homes Aim to Offer More ‘Dignity’ for Displaced

Boys (C) play with a ball amid tents at a makeshift camp for displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on April 10, 2026. (AFP)
Boys (C) play with a ball amid tents at a makeshift camp for displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on April 10, 2026. (AFP)

In southern Gaza, aid workers are meticulously assembling fiberglass homes meant to shelter thousands of Palestinians still displaced six months after a ceasefire started between Israel and Hamas.

Nearly two million people in Gaza are living in makeshift shelters, and the humanitarian situation remains dire, according to aid agencies.

The fiberglass units are designed to offer a modicum of relief -- homes with slightly more comfort than a tent vulnerable to the coastal winds that hit Gaza.

Alessandro Markic, head of the United Nations Development Program office in Gaza, initiated the plan. He said families "are facing extremely difficult conditions".

Roughly 4,000 units are planned in the al-Mohararat area, west of Khan Younis.

Workers assemble walls, install small windows, and lay roofs for families who try to settle in with rugs and cushions inside.

"These are very basic and temporary solutions, while we continue to plan for recovery and reconstruction," Markic said. The homes, he added, "provide more dignity, privacy, and protection during the winter."

Some Gazans were visibly relieved to have an alternative to the tents where most displaced people continue to live.

Nasma Sharab has moved into one unit with her sons, and affirmed it was "better" than a tent.

The fiberglass homes "don't constantly blow away in the wind," she said.

But, she added, "it's a temporary solution while we wait for reconstruction to begin and for people to be able to go back to their homes."

Among those who remain in a tent is Ali Abu Nahl, in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, after being displaced to the center and south of the territory with his children and grandchildren.

His house was destroyed during the devastating conflict that erupted with the Hamas attacks on Israel in October 2023.

"It's been half a year since the bombing stopped, but in Gaza, the war doesn't end when the strikes stop," he said.