As election nears, oil becomes an ally

BAGHDAD - At one time last year, Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani was going to leave politics after the national elections.

Since then the minister has charted a number of successes, including landing sweet terms to bring the world's largest oil companies into the country to develop 10 oil projects which, if it goes as planned, would boost production capacity to 12 million barrels per day (bpd).