Thread: Archive News - Iraqi Dinar Think Tank - 24/01/201 - 23/07/2011

Iqbal: increase in inflation because we are moving in the absence of a clear vision for the country's economy

A member of the House of Representatives of the Alliance of center-Iraqi Mohammed Iqbal Umar that the economy needs inflation to a series of actions begins with planning and ending with the executive, direct monitoring of the time.

Iqbal said in a press statement that the level of inflation because the increase in Iraq is moving in the absence of a clear vision of the economy of the country we still do not know what are the face of economic adopted by the economic system in Iraq.

And continued a member of the Alliance of the center that measures to reduce the inflation ceiling is the investment projects, we are the House of Representatives discussed the topic of altering oil investment and increase the proportion of profits to be given to companies to encourage investment.

Indicating that the condition to be 75% of the workforce and investment in the refineries are the hands of an Iraqi to absorb unemployment and therefore do not have to make the state more grades in excess of the government and slouch over inflation in the financial market of Iraq.

Iqbal said that there are other measures could be followed such as the withdrawal and imports of state-of-home, such as activating the subject of customs tariff and the issue of taxes on some services, including stable currency means the withdrawal of Iraq from the inside, which helps to reduce the rate of inflation in the country.

http://www.ipairaq.com/index.php?nam...onomy&id=36923

IMF skeptical of Iraq oil targets

The International Monetary Fund Monday expressed doubts over Iraq's ability to meet its long-term targets for oil production, currently the source of nearly 90 percent of government income. The IMF said infrastructure constraints were likely to prevent Iraq from boosting production from 2.5 million barrels now to its goal of 13 million barrels by 2017 -- more than oil king Saudi Arabia's current production.

"While these production goals could be feasible in the longer term, the main risks in the coming years will be bottlenecks in the export infrastructure that will need to be addressed," the IMF said, in a review of its $3.7 billion support program.

Based on more conservative assumptions for the time it will take to expand Iraq's export capacity, oil production could still increase to over five million barrels a day by 2017.

The IMF cited the need for huge investments in port facilities, pipelines, desalination plants (for water to be injected into oil fields) and storage facilities.

In the very best case scenario, it said, Iraq could reach 12.2 million barrels a day by then.

It forecast production would rise to 2.75 million barrels a day, this year. Last year production constraints held back exports to 1.85 million barrels a day from the planned 2.1 million. But higher market prices still garnered Baghdad $50 billion, four percent more than it expected.

The IMF also reported that the government's deficit was running "well below" forecast. But it warned about joblessness especially among Iraqi youth, and referred to the violent demonstrations elsewhere in the Middle East in that context.

"Although reliable data are lacking, unemployment was estimated at about 12 percent in 2008," the IMF said.

"Actual unemployment, particularly among the younger generation, is likely to be higher, however, as a large part of the adult population has not entered the labor force."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...296681ac80.ec1

Iraq’s Planning Ministry lays 433 companies on black list

Iraq’s Planning Ministry has announced on Tuesday it had laid 433 companies, acting in Iraq, to the black list, charging them with incompetence.

“The Planning Ministry has decided to lay 433 companies to the black list, due to their incompetence and failure to implement the projects, assigned for their execution,” a statement by the Planning Ministry’s Undersecretary, Nassar al-Rube’i said.

The statement, copy of which was received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency, did not carry the names of the said companies or any other details.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/Default1....&id=141688&l=1

Buoyed by oil, a semblance of stability in Iraq

As upheaval and political instability sweep across the Middle East, Iraq has quietly consolidated recent security gains against a backdrop of economic progress. As the recent rise of oil prices worldwide coincided with a petroleum industry that has reached its production targets, Iraq is now emerging from its civil wars and sectarian uncertainty with a new outlook and better prospects for lasting prosperity.

Although several demonstrations in the Kurdish north have recently occurred, demanding systemic political change, the early gains in 2011 cannot be ignored.

The ruling coalition, led by the prime minister Nouri al Maliki, has forged a transparent - albeit tenuous - unity government from two duelling political parties, curtailed nation-wide violence and helped to reduce long-simmering tensions.

More importantly, increased revenue from the petroleum sector has enabled the Iraqi government to revise its budget forecast and pay for many infrastructure-related investments. These developments are welcome and long overdue.

The crucial aspect in this development strategy is, of course, the stability of the petroleum and natural gas industry, and whether the electricity delivery system will function during the summer months.

Since June 2009, the Maliki government has secured over a dozen major oil field contracts with international oil companies, and has made these deals the cornerstone of Iraq's future economic development. The challenge now will be sustaining these impressive gains.

While the country's future oil production has been optimistically projected as high as 12 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2020, significant obstacles remain to increased output.

For one, the country's infrastructure and skilled labour supply are insufficient for the country's ambitious plans, and billions of dollars must be invested to facilitate a supporting infrastructure for oil field development and exports. Although Iraq has the second largest amount of reserves in the world, current output is similar to the level of Algeria, whose proven reserves are a fraction of those of Iraq.

Beyond capacity are more bureaucratic hurdles. For instance, much has also been discussed about the legality and constitutionality of the agreements awarded through the bid round processes. At the centre of the debate is the ambiguous legal framework that underlies Iraq's oil industry. The absence of any national hydrocarbon law leaves lawmakers and regional governments at odds and uncertain over the application of laws already in place.

The 2005 Iraqi National Constitution arguably grants significant power to the regional semi-autonomous governments, such as the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), when it comes to managing hydrocarbon resources, as well as negotiating their extraction. However, previous governments chose to negotiate these bid rounds in a centralised fashion, despite the lack of a comprehensive petroleum law.

One of the main challenges facing Iraq is the lingering dispute between Baghdad and the KRG over oil production and exports in Iraq's Kurdish region. Frustrated by stalled negotiations over a national oil law, the KRG passed its own hydrocarbon investment law in 2007, based on a contentious interpretation of the Iraqi constitution, and began independently entering into their own production sharing contracts (PSCs) with over three dozen independent oil companies.

At first, Baghdad condemned the PSCs, which have drawn international scrutiny over allegations of impropriety, and the central government blacklisted any oil company operating under agreement with the KRG. This early resistance, however, appears to be changing.

One of the first acts of the new federal Iraqi Minister of Oil, Abdul Karim al Luaibi, was to resume permission allowing the export of petroleum from the Kurdistan Region. This breakthrough was further supported by Mr al Maliki's assertion last month that federal Iraq will abide by the terms of the PSCs signed by the KRG.

At the nexus of enacting a federal oil law and the dispute with the KRG rests the central legal and political issue of Iraq's political future: the long-running dispute over the ethnically-mixed and oil-rich area around Kirkuk against a backdrop of Kurdish demands for greater autonomy. Iraq's Kurds have repeatedly called for the area's energy resources to be placed under KRG administration

The local Arab population is equally insistent that Kirkuk and its oil remain under the authority of Baghdad. This dispute will undoubtedly last well past the tenure of Mr al Maliki as prime minister, who has also stated publicly that he will not seek a third term in office past 2014.

Although the need to develop the electricity production and delivery system, increase petroleum production to required levels, political cleavages, and sectarian differences may seem daunting and insurmountable, the challenges which Iraq continues to face are relatively manageable compared to the progress it has already made.

Thomas W Donovan is an attorney with the Iraq Law Alliance, PLLC

http://www.thenational.ae/thenationa...bility-in-iraq

IMF - Iraq: Second Review Under the Stand-By Arrangement, Requests for Waiver of Applicability, Extension of the Arrangement, and Rephasing of Access—Staff Report; Press Release on the Executive Board Discussion; and Statement by the Executive Director for Iraq.

Full Text

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2011/cr1175.pdf

IMF - Iraq: Letter of Intent, Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies, and Technical Memorandum of Understanding, March 3, 2011

http://www.imf.org/External/NP/LOI/2011/IRQ/030311.pdf

Iraq’s Mortgage Bank raises personal credit for house building by each citizen to 60 million Iraqi dinars

Iraq’s Mortgage Bank has decided to raise the personal credit, granted for any citizen planning to build a house, to 60 million Iraqi dinars (US$53,000 approx), the Bank’s Director-General, Hussein Ahmed Tu’ma said on Wednesday.

“The Mortgage Bank has laid plans to activate the process of crediting, through raising the credit to double, i.e. from 30 million dinars to 60 millions, with keeping the percentage of interest on citizens at 2% of the total credit and with the same crediting period,” Tu’ma told the semi-official Al-Sabah newspaper.

He said that the total area of each patch of land would be decreased to 90 square meters, instead of 100 meters as minimum, adding that the Finance Ministry plans to increase the Mortgage Bank’s capital to 75 billion (b) dinars, as the first stage and to 150 billions (b), next year.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/Default1....&id=141707&l=1

Iraqi Parliament summons Oil Minister

The Iraqi Parliament’s Oil & Energy Committee has summoned Oil Minister, Abdul-Karim Lueiby, on Wednesday, to discuss his Ministry’s plan for the forthcoming four years, the Committee’s Chairman, Adnan al-Janaby said.

“The Parliament’s Oil & Energy Committee has summoned today (Wednesday) Oil Minister, Abdul-Karim Lueiby, to discuss the Oil Ministry’s plan for the forthcoming four years,” Janaby told a news conference, attended by Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

Oil Minister lueiby, on his part, told the news conference that he had discussed the Ministry’s plan for the for the forthcoming four years, with the Parliament’s Oil & Energy Committee, adding that both sides have discussed important issues, related to the Ministry’s activity, especially those concerning production, service contracts and distribution sectors.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/Default1....&id=141718&l=1

Committee on Oil and Energy hosts the parliamentary oil minister

Host of the oil and energy in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, Oil Minister to discuss the work of the ministry the next four years.

A member of the Commission on oil and energy and natural resources deputy Susan Saad said the committee will be discussed in hosting the subject of rates of production capacity before and after licensing rounds, the first and second, and the issue of specification of petroleum products and their conformity with international standards, and future plans for the entry of investors in Iraq for the establishment of oil refineries to meet local needs as well as seeking to export in the future.

Saad and showed that the past years has not seen plans for the establishment of refineries in the country and reduce the import of petroleum products.

She also will discuss with the Minister of Oil, the subject of the possibility of reducing the prices of petroleum products to the consumer, because they have become burdens of the Iraqi citizen.

http://www.ipairaq.com/index.php?nam...onomy&id=36942

Oil parliamentary questioning the ability of Iraq on the export of 12 million barrels per day during the coming years

questioned a member of the parliamentary oil and energy, on Wednesday, Iraq's ability to produce 12 million barrels per day of crude oil during the coming years, because of the inability of the infrastructure to absorb this quantity of oil.

The committee member said Furat al-Shara told the Kurdish news agency (Rn) that "the infrastructure of the system does not allow oil to deliver the level of export of crude oil in the coming years to 12 million barrels a day."

The International Monetary Fund has questioned the day before yesterday, last Monday in a report issued by the Ministry of Oil's ability to raise the level of oil exports to 12 million barrels per day during the coming years because of infrastructure problems faced by the country's oil system.

Shara added that "The oil ministry has now begun to develop a plan to develop new energy storage of crude oil for delivery during 2014 to 4 million barrels per day by 2016."

He continued by saying that "Iraq needs to the intensive efforts of oil companies that won licenses in the three rounds of the extractive infrastructure development of crude oil during the next phase to reach the highest levels of exports."

The Oil Ministry announced on 19 March that it seeks lifting of crude oil production to 4 million barrels per day after completion of the projects Alkhoznip energy development and export.

And al-Shara that "enhance the capacity of oil production must be preceded by development projects and infrastructure development of the oil pipeline through the creation of reservoirs and the development of export" ..

The Oil Ministry said in September that crude oil inventories in the country has 505 billion barrels of discovered fields that $ 66 oil fields, with total recoverable reserves of 143 billion barrels.

Iraq has since the early eighties of the last century a wide array of export of crude oil with a capacity of Nominal 6.6 million barrels per day, including a double tube through Turkish territory to the Turkish port of Ceyhan on the card more than 1.6 million barrels.

However, the system suffered damage and neglect by the long years of war and siege, which had a negative impact on energy exports.

The giant international companies in the energy field has won contracts through two rounds of licenses to develop 10 oil fields discovered untapped.

Although the Iraqi government predicted the arrival of its crude oil production to about 12 million barrels per day over the next five years, but experts have questioned the production and access to that goal, and said that seven million barrels a day was a reasonable figure.

http://www.aknews.com/ar/aknews/2/228356/