Because of weaker global oil prices, Iraqi oil revenues dropped 5 percent even though exports ticked upward.
Iraq cannot pay oil companies on time under its 2021 budget law, the Oil Ministry said in an official letter seeking a legal intervention.
Nationwide oil output fell by 100,000 bpd, but the Oil Ministry is poised to bring new production online as OPEC quotas look set to ease.
Basra Oil Company's field manager at Majnoon talks foreign interest and Iraqi success in developing the field once operated by Shell.
The two sides still need to overcome the same sticking points that have derailed Iraq's previous attempts at multi-faceted Basra mega-deals.
The chief of Basra's oil sector discusses Exxon's impending departure from West Qurna 1, Total's bid for a massive new deal, and Iraq's efforts to develop new capacity from state-run fields.
The Oil Ministry wants to replace Exxon with another American company, while Exxon has lined up two Chinese firms to buy its stake.
Key gas project beset by contracting and security problems could serve domestic energy demand and ease sanctions tension with Washington.
In Nassiriya, the arrest of an oil official highlights a kind of corruption that usually stays in the shadows of political protection networks.
The director general of Iraq's state-run drilling company discusses plans to help the country boost production in an era of higher oil prices and loosening OPEC constraints.
