Recent Articles

Iraq is rich with oil, but public debate around the oil and gas sector in Iraq is limited, and corruption has reached endemic proportions.

Blog ~ 13:11, 3 April 2013

Adnan Al-Janabi, head of Parliament's Oil and Energy Committee, discusses the petroleum law and oil's role in his country's future.

News Article ~ 9 July 2012

Susan al-Saad of the Iraqi parliament recounts how an RWI workshop taught her to tackle problems from a different angle.

News Article ~ 25 June 2012

RWI consultant Keith Myers reflects on the challenges facing Iraq's parliament in creating a post-dictator oil power structure.

News Article ~ 9 May 2012
RWI has held two regional workshops to help local groups analyze the report and take a leading role in Iraq's EITI process.
News Article ~ 23 January 2012

Keith Myers digs deep into the politics that have hindered the passage of Iraq's oil and gas law for more than four years.

Blog ~ 8:53, 13 December 2011

Tensions were high at RWI's Beirut workshop as Iraqi lawmakers debated the role oil will play in their country's future.

Blog ~ 9:50, 18 November 2011

Iraqi parliamentarians gathered in Beirut for a three-day workshop on lawmakers' roles and responsibilities in oil and gas oversight.

Blog ~ 9:33, 17 November 2011
Iraqi civil society members concluded an RWI capacity building workshop with the decision to form a coalition of NGOs working for oil, gas and mining transparency.
News Article ~ 10 February 2011
A U.S. audit that found the U.S. Department of Defense unable to account properly for 96 percent of $9.1 billion in Iraqi funds from the sale of Iraq's oil underscores the need for Iraq's new government to adopt strong, transparent controls on oil revenues and spending if the country's oil industry is to fuel economic development rather than conflict.
Press Release ~ 5 August 2010
New York—With the formal addition of Afghanistan to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative this week, leaders and citizens gained a new tool in the struggle for regional stability, and the embattled country signaled a commitment to sound natural resource management and increased public accountability.
Press Release ~ 11 February 2010
The Revenue Watch Institute today congratulated the Government of Iraq as it formally announced that it would join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), taking a historic step toward the efficient and open management of its oil industry.
Press Release ~ 11 January 2010
In the heightened political climate surrounding Iraq's upcoming election, lawmakers and others in Iraq are criticizing the country's pending natural gas deal with Shell Oil, saying that it offers lopsided benefits to the international oil giant and that it was drafted without adequate transparency or oversight.
News Article ~ 10 September 2009
News from Iraq indicates that on July 28 the Cabinet agreed upon a bill establishing a new National Oil Company (NOC), to help develop the country's petroleum and ramp up production to meet the government's pressing revenue needs. The details of the bill have not been released, but a strong commercial company with a clear mandate could be instrumental in the revitalization of Iraq's oil sector. However, this enabling legislation cannot be a stand-alone action. A national company will be doomed to fail if it arrives unaccompanied by core laws to govern Iraq's oil sector.
News Article ~ 4 September 2009
In commentary in the Financial Times, Yahia Said calls for transparency in the negotiation of controversial Iraqi oil contracts, and help from international institutions as Iraq rebuilds its oil sector, its hobbled bureaucracy and trust between government and the citizens who stand to benefit in an improved Iraqi economy.
News Article ~ 23 July 2008
In a June 30 interview, Revenue Watch Middle East North Africa Director Yahia Said explained the latest steps by Iraq to revitalize its oil sector through contracts with U.S. and foreign firms, and the continuing barriers to new hydrocarbon legislation. "The Iraqis haven't agreed yet on two major issues," Said told Judy Woodruff of "NewsHour." "One is the division of power and responsibilities between the central government and the regions and the province over the industry, who controls the industry, who signs contracts, who manages the fields.
News Article ~ 1 July 2008
As Iraq struggles to move beyond the deadlocked debate over oil legislation, a positive sign came last week when the nation formally expressed its interest in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. This is an encouraging step, as our colleague Yahia Said pointed out during his testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. With its February 21 letter to the EITI secretariat, Iraq's government officially declared its commitment to greater transparency in the management its vast oil revenues. Iraq holds the planet's second largest reserve of oil, now estimated at 300 billion barrels.
News Article ~ 9 April 2008
Iraq expert Yahia Said of the Revenue Watch Institute today warned that Iraq's development depends on the creation of a political dialogue that includes all Iraqis, and on the timely resolution of the country's oil law conflicts. "Nowhere is the gridlock caused by sectarian politics more evident than in the discussion of Iraq's oil legislation," explained Said, Revenue Watch Institute director for the Middle East and North Africa.
Press Release ~ 7 April 2008
This week, two senior U.S. Senators expressed alarm at the lack of reconstruction spending and fiscal transparency in Iraq, and called for an investigation by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) into how Iraq manages its oil revenues. Despite the reductions in Iraqi violence since the U.S. military "surge," the rebuilding process and the associated spending have lagged. Revenue Watch and other experts are citing a range of obstacles to easy improvements and better reporting of both revenues and expenditures.
News Article ~ 14 March 2008
On the one year anniversary of the U.S. military surge, community leaders in Iraq have begun to rebuild, but enduring changes such as an equitable oil law, or clean water, will be unreachable as long as growth depends on the factional leaders walled off in Baghdad's Green Zone. In the International Herald Tribune, RWI's Yahia Said explains the urgent need for fair elections and political power-sharing.
News Article ~ 7 January 2008
Latest report from the Center for Strategic & International Studies assessing the U.S. Defense Departments latest report on Iraq. The CSIS report cites "strong indicators that the glass has gone from one that was mostly empty to one that is at least half full," but adds that the military assessment "scarcely describes a stable or secure Iraq and it indicates that the Iraq War still presents a high risk of failure."
News Article ~ 20 December 2007
Report on Iraq's economic situation, the effects of deteriorations in security, and progress on strengthening macroeconomic and structural reforms, based on IMF meetings with Iraqi officials and analysis by the IMF staff and Executive Board.
News Article ~ 15 August 2007
An analysis of Iraq's Federal Oil and Gas Law, Federal Financial Resources Law, relevant constitutional articles and proposed amendments by the Constitutional Review Committee and the Kurdistan Region Oil and Gas Law and Model Contract
News Article ~ 18 July 2007
Draft of Iraqi Hydrocarbon Law submitted to Parliament on February 15th, 2007, from Kurdistan Regional Government website. Read expert commentary from Tariq Shafiq, Fadhil Al-Chalabi, Malik Dohan Al-Hasan, Nabil Marsoomi, Joseph C. Bell, Hogan & Hartson LLP, and Professor Cheryl Saunders and others.
News Article ~ 15 February 2007
Ernst & Young's summary of findings for the period ending December 31, 2006, from the International Advisory and Monitoring Board for Iraq (IAMB).
News Article ~ 14 January 2007