China Petroleum Pipeline is close to winning a $650 million contract to build a pipeline linking oilfields in southern Iraq's Maysan province to major export storage depots and offshore terminals on the Persian Gulf, the chief of state-run Maysan Oil Co., Ali Maarij, said Jan. 22, Reuters and Al Arabiya English reported.

The Algerian Parliament approved amendments to its hydrocarbons law that will offer foreign energy firms easier tax terms and other incentives, Reuters reported Jan. 21.

Suspected Islamist militants attacked a police patrol convoy along a natural gas pipeline in Sinai, leaving seven policemen wounded, unnamed Egyptian security officials said Jan. 11, AP reported.

An Iranian Oil Ministry spokesman on Jan. 8 denied an earlier report claiming a 40 percent decline in Iranian oil exports, Mehr News Agency reported.

Iran's oil exports have fallen 40 percent in the last nine months, Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi told a parliamentary commission on Jan. 7, AFP reported, citing the ISNA news agency.

Iran will not negotiate with countries who have supported the sanctions against Iran, the chairman of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Alaedden Borujerdi, said Dec. 26, Fars News Agency reported.

Tajik Prime Minister Oqil Oqilov sent a message to his Uzbek counterpart, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, regarding Uztransgaz's decision to suspend natural gas exports to Tajikistan, Tajik Avesta reported Dec. 25.

Iraq's Northern Kuridsh region has suspended oil exports over a payment dispute with the government in Baghdad, an Iraqi Kurdish official said Dec. 25, AP reported.