Likely next NOC chief versed in northern Iraq complexities

KIRKUK - In mid January, a week after Bashir Murad was named as a deputy director general of the North Oil Company (NOC) with administrative authority to act as de facto director general, he received an important visitor.

Mohammed al-Bayati, a former federal parliamentarian, human rights minister, and now the head of the powerful Badr Organization's northern Iraq branch, came to congratulate him.