LIFE / CULTURE By AFP Published: Jan 10, 2021 03:53 PM
People wearing face masks are seen at a street in Baghdad, Iraq on Aug. 19, 2020. Night life has been resuming in Baghdad since Aug. 16, when the Iraqi Higher Committee for Health and National Safety cancelled the weekly three-day full curfew to replace them with partial curfew every week and reduced the partial curfew hours to be from 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. (Xinhua)
An imposing house stands out among other buildings in Iraq s Samawah city - once a multi-generational family home, it s now a museum of a bygone age in the country s tribal south.
An imposing house stands out among other buildings in Iraq s Samawah city once a multi-generational family home, it s now a museum of a bygone age in the country s tribal south.
Article content
(Bloomberg) Iraq confirmed that it’s selected a Chinese company for a multibillion-dollar oil-supply deal, as the Arab nation seeks funds to bolster an economy reeling from the Coronavirus-triggered collapse in energy prices.
SOMO, which oversees Iraq’s petroleum exports, picked a Chinese company after receiving bids from several traders, the official Iraqi News Agency reported, citing an interview with the head of SOMO, Alaa Al-Yasiri. While INA didn’t name the company or specify if Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi had signed off on the deal, Bloomberg reported last month that ZhenHua Oil Co., a subsidiary of China’s largest state-owned defense contractor, was the winner.
Iraq
will receive $2bn at zero interest through the sale. Media reports last month said the country had entered
a supply agreement with ZhenHua Oil, a subsidiary of China s largest state-owned defence contractor.
Under the agreement, the Chinese firm will pay for a full year s worth of crude before loading shipments. Usually, payments are made 30 days after crude exports are loaded. The flexibility that Iraq has granted to companies is the freedom to determine the day of loading the shipments, the export destination, the possibility of resale and a set of marketing benefits in return, Mr Al Yasiri said.
Iraq is navigating a debilitating economic crisis compounded by falling oil prices in 2020 caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as an ongoing health crisis.