Iraq: Baghdad looks to commercial partners to help re-establish security

The stabilisation of parts of Anbar and Nineveh provinces opens up the prospect of the re-entry of commercial ventures in Iraq’s northwest. Baghdad is particularly keen to lure back Angola’s national oil company Sonangol. Three years ago the firm opted not take up its rights to the Qayarah and Najmah fields in Nineveh province due to the terrorist threat, but it never formally declared force majeure and is now being actively solicited by oil minister Jabbar Luaibi to take up the fields.