Iraq News Now

BASHIQA - Of all the oil projects in Iraq, the Bashiqa exploration block - which straddles the line of control between the autonomous Kurdistan region and the federal government - is perhaps the most laden with political and geological complexity.

Those daunting factors caused ExxonMobil to farm out half of its stake in the project in 2017. Now, Norway's DNO has taken over as operator, under a contract with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), and is beginning a fraught new chapter of oil development in the area.

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