The Swiss mining and trading company Glencore has made a $300 million advanced payment into the Kurdistan Region for oil in a bid to compete with its rivals Petraco and Vitol. The payment, according to Reuters, was to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) which will allot it part of its rich oil reserves in the coming months. Glencore is seeking to get a foothold in Kurdistan's oil industry as the fall in the price of coal and metal has seen it lose profits, putting more pressure on its oil division to make up the loss. Additionally it doesn't want to see its competitors get a greater foothold in what may amount to be a very lucrative market. After Baghdad stopped oil revenue sharing with Kurdistan in February 2014 Erbil began to independently export oil reserves in the middle of 2015. The Kurdistan Region's oil has been exported through the Turkish port of Ceyhan onto the international market. Erbil currently depends heavily on the export of oil to pay for its large public sector work force and for its ongoing war against Islamic State. Consequently the drop in the world price of oil has hurt its economy.
World19-06-2026Switzerland confirms postponement of US–Iran talks as diplomatic preparations continue
.jpeg&w=3840&q=75)
