Sanctions Snarl Lukoil—Baghdad Pays Up to Protect 480,000 bpd of Oil Production

Iraq has quietly stepped in to keep one of its most important oilfields from wobbling. After two months of unpaid wages at Lukoil’s West Qurna-2, Baghdad has begun paying local staff directly, advancing December salaries to prevent a slowdown at a field that supplies roughly 0.5% of global oil and nearly a tenth of Iraq’s output—production that Iraq cannot replace from elsewhere. This is the first visible stress fracture in West Qurna-2 since Washington’s October 22 sanctions froze Lukoil’s ability to move money across…