Despite the protests in Baghdad, which saw many foreign diplomats leave the city, for security reasons, Russia did not pay much attention to this. In fact, not only did its embassy remain open during the last weeks of the unrest, but its Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, last month visited Baghdad, then Erbil.

A tour of non-diplomatic missions

It seems that Minister Lavrov's tour was not an ordinary diplomatic mission, as no formal agreements were signed, as for political affairs, the Syrian issue, and terrorism, they were discussed later, and the presence of diplomats was insignificant during the events of last week.

In fact, the focus of these meetings was on the participation of businessmen, including representatives of Russian companies working in the field of gas and oil, such as "Gazprom Neft", "Rosneft", "Citizensgaz" and "Lukoil".

Among the participants was also the Russian company "Technopromixport", which specializes in the manufacture of energy industry facilities, as well as the Russian federal services for military and technical cooperation.

A source close to the resigned Iraqi Prime Minister, Adel Abdul-Mahdi - who asked not to be named - said that "bilateral trade relations are only discussed during the meetings." Another source close to the local Kurdistan government, based in Erbil, said: "The Russians wanted to ensure that all Things are going smoothly with regard to Russian energy projects in Iraq »

Russian companies have become well represented in the oil companies located in Iraq, and the Russian market share will increase as a natural result of long-term oil and gas contracts. For example, in 2009 Lukoil Company won the first contract for the post-war Iraqi oil development project in "West Qurna -2" in Basra, and the project was to continue for 25 years, so that 800,000 barrels per day would be produced by the end of The year 2024. These days, this field does not produce more than 400 thousand barrels per day, but it now constitutes 9% of the total Iraqi production of crude oil, and 12% of Iraqi oil exports.

Huge investment

There are also other deals made since 2011, which included investments worth $ 2.5 billion to «Gazprom» and its partners in central Iraq and the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Gazprom produced three million barrels from Sargala fields in Garmyan, for example, and carried out several exploration projects in the Halabja and Shakal fields. And last September, the Russian company "Stroitransgaz" won a contract for 34 years of exploration for gas and oil in Anbar province, a deal that made Lavrov offer special thanks to the Iraqi government, according to a source in the Iraqi government office.

Indeed, Russia is not interested in the oil fields per se, and Rosneft owns 60% of the oil pipelines in Kurdistan, which are the main tubes operating for export in Iraq. In the spring of 2018, "Rosneft" also announced the signing of an agreement with the Ministry of Natural Resources in the Iraqi Kurdistan government to develop its oil and gas infrastructure, including the installation of new gas pipelines, whose export capacity is expected to be about 30 billion cubic meters of gas annually, which is An amount equal to 6% of Europe's total gas needs annually.

And according to what an Iraqi politician said last November - who asked not to be named - "With this deal, Russia has acquired a lot of political power in Iraq." Oil makes up 96% of Iraq’s exports, but without the export pipelines, oil will have no value for the country. Accordingly, Russia mainly controls these exports. ”

Russia was not present with all this power in the Iraqi oil and gas sector before, but after the fall of the government of the late President Saddam Hussein in 2003, and the subsequent American occupation of Iraq, Russian oil companies remained largely away from Iraqi oil fields, but All this changed later, as a result of the increase in sectarian conflict in 2009. Around that time, many Western oil companies (such as Exxon Mobil and Chevron) left, part or all, the region, as a result of major security concerns. Accordingly, risky Russian companies have replaced them.

The Russian company was welcomed in Iraq. As one of the leaders of Kurdistan told "Foreign Policy", finally, "long before the recent political and security financial crisis, and at the beginning of 2012, Russian companies entered as a strong internal investor." At that time, there was no need for the Russians, because the Americans had a strong presence and support in the region, but when the Americans abandoned Kurdistan, the Russians became friends with the Kurdish people. The prevailing opinion in Kurdistan was that business deals with the Russians could bring political and security benefits.

Even the sanctions did not bother the Russians or the Iraqis, and some companies that develop Iraqi oil, including "Gazprom" and "Rosneft", were registered on the US sanctions lists for their relationship to annexing the Crimea, and Russia's involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, but Iraqi officials They were not worried. And one of those officials said last November, "For a long time, Iraq has been working with Russian companies that are subject to the sanctions of the US Treasury, and so far the United States has not had any strong reaction to these deals between Russia and Iraq, and for this we do not see any importance for that."

Perhaps the US President, Donald Trump, would like to claim that the United States still has a hand in the Iraqi oil sector. In Trump's recent tweet about Syria, for example, he wrote: “The oil fields I talked about with the Turks and the Kurds yesterday were under the control of (ISIS), until the United States recovered them with the help of the Kurds. We will not allow (ISIS) to gather its forces again to control these fields. ”

In a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Trump said, "We are keeping oil, and oil is still safe." With regard to Iraq, the US President showed his remorse for the failure of US forces to seize Iraqi oil reserves after the war. In fact, the oil fields in the region will not fall under the control of ISIS again, but it is unlikely that the United States will play the largest role in the Iraqi oil field, but rather that Russia can become responsible for the fields on the ground. Soon, the dollar itself may not have a place in Iraqi oil trade, as Russia and Iraq are discussing payments in Russian rubles or the Iraqi dinar, to avoid any friction with the financial system of the United States.

Indeed, the Russian influence on oil in Iraq and Syria is not just a long-term economic blow to the United States, but also a political blow, as oil is the main currency in these two countries, and for this, whoever controls it will have the strongest opinion on the region's geopolitics.

- Russian influence on

Oil in Iraq

And Syria is not just

Far economic blow

Term for states

United, but represented

Political blow as well,

Oil is the currency

President in these two

Two states, and for this, the

Whoever controls it

He will have an opinion

The strongest in

Geopolitics of the region.

- After the fall of the government

The late president, Saddam

Hussain, 2003

And what followed

American occupation

For Iraq, companies remained

Russian oil is far

Pretty much about

oil fields

Iraqi, but changed

All of that later,

As a result of increased conflict

Sectarianism in 2009

And beyond.