The government is seeking stopgap solutions to major blackouts that have sparked protests in southern Iraq.
Financial constraints and OPEC cuts led to oil sector layoffs and protests that briefly shut down access to Missan province's largest field.
Local authorities are preoccupied with the pandemic and hampered by tangled power structures, prompting the prime minister to pursue a new security strategy.
Seeking to combat an exponential rise in confirmed COVID-19 cases, government measures are also disrupting oil and security operations.
The World Health Organization is still guardedly optimistic Iraq can avoid a coronavirus catastrophe, despite Iraq's poor mask compliance and perhaps premature end to its lockdown.
One of Iraq's most effective ways of securing oil infrastructure has been to enlist locals as guards, but now cash flows are drying up just as an insurgency intensifies.
Protests that prompted an emergency evacuation in May were caused by a breakdown in payments and cooperation between Shell and its government partners.
Foreign staff of the Shell-Mitsubishi-Iraq joint venture left the country after local workers protested for unpaid salaries.
The Islamic State group capitalized on deteriorating U.S.-Iraqi relations as a pandemic further distracted the unfinished fight against it.
With some measures relaxed, the risk of further COVID-19 case growth raises concerns.
