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

Big reason for hope in Iraq: Oil, and lots of it

BASRA, Iraq — On a bleak stretch of desert near the Iraq-Kuwait border — half a world away from the Gulf of Mexico and last year's nightmarish blowout — BP is riding high, rapidly developing one of the world's richest oil fields.

The British energy giant plans to drill 3,000 new wells here over the next 10 years and build a town from scratch to house 4,000 employees. BP and Iraqi officials hope the Rumaila field soon will become the second most productive in the world — after Saudi Arabia's Ghawar — propelling the country into competition with Saudi Arabia and its other powerful oil-producing neighbor, Iran.

Iraq sits on the world's third largest oil reserves, after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, with the biggest known fields lying under the windswept sands outside Basra. Despite aging pipelines, spotty electricity, chronic insecurity and a maze of inefficient bureaucracy, the oil sector is pressing an ambitious expansion plan that will determine Iraq's economic future long after the last American soldiers withdraw at the end of the year.

Earlier this month, thanks largely to the gains at Rumaila, Iraqi officials said that daily oil production had climbed to 2.7 million barrels, the highest level since the U.S.-led invasion nearly eight years ago. Though that's barely a quarter of what Saudi Arabia produces, Iraq claims that within seven years it could surpass its rival by increasing production to more than 13 million barrels per day.

That would be a colossal achievement, and few expect it to happen. But after three decades of dictatorial neglect, economic sanctions and conflict that decimated Iraq's oil sector, the increases so far are "extraordinarily encouraging," said Jim Jeffrey, the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad.

"I can't stress how important that is from the standpoint of Baghdad and the politics and economics of this country as it gets reintegrated with the rest of the world," Jeffrey said during a recent visit to Basra, Iraq's port on the Persian Gulf and the hub of its southern oil region.

The international oil industry views Iraq as one of the last great crude jackpots. Experts think that Rumaila and the nearby West Qurna fields — where a consortium led by Texas-based Exxon Mobil is working — could reshape world markets and bring down oil prices. They also could rattle the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, putting Iraq on a diplomatic collision course with fellow members of the oil cartel.

More immediately, oil could finance Iraq's postwar recovery. Crude exports account for roughly 90 percent of government revenue, more than $190 billion from 2005 to 2009, according to U.S. government figures.

So central is oil to Basra that the province's official seal features a derrick. At the height of the sectarian warfare that followed the invasion, however, it was one of the scariest places in Iraq, a battle zone ruled by Shiite Muslim militias such as Muqtada al Sadr's Mahdi Army and the Iranian-backed Vengeance of God. In 2008, Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki deployed thousands of security forces to retake control.

Today, oil companies worry less about security than about logistics: difficulties securing visas for foreign employees, for example, and long delays in clearing heavy equipment through customs at Basra's airport. Still, the companies employ large private-security details and, in an unusual arrangement, BP and a few other British firms are renting some offices and bedrooms from the British consulate, housed in a bombproof building on the U.S. military base in Basra.

"The British government is not usually in the hotel business," said Alice Walpole, the British consul general in Basra. But the arrangement was "a major help to British companies operating in a particularly challenging environment."

With most of Iraq's new government in place — including a veteran technocrat, Abdul Karim al Luaibi, leading the Oil Ministry — "oil production is likely to increase more rapidly than many forecasters assume," the Eurasia Group, a risk consultancy, wrote in a note to clients this month.

Some experts wonder whether it's expanding too quickly. On Jan. 2, after less than two weeks on the job, Luaibi announced that bidding would start before the end of the year on new blocks for oil and gas exploration in western Iraq, despite concerns over security and the oil sector's ability to serve the existing fields.

"It took a lot of people by surprise," said Ben Lando, the founder of Iraq Oil Report, an industry newsletter. "In seven years you're planning to raise capacity to more than Saudi Arabia, the most oil that any country has ever produced. You don't know what the market is going to look like ... and you are just lacking in the technical and legal capacity.

"To go to a (new) bidding round and stretch yourself even thinner — it's clearly going to be a challenge."

Among the biggest concerns are the old, corroded pipelines that carry three-quarters of the crude that Iraq sells abroad. They were last inspected in 1991 and "are ready to burst or at least drastically leak," Lando said. Some of the aging pipelines are underwater, mainly those that connect the port to offshore terminals.

Iraqi officials acknowledge the danger of a spill but they argue that shutting down even temporarily would cost millions that the government needs for reconstruction.

Instead, Iraq has opted for a combination of quick fixes — injecting a chemical into the piped oil to reduce pressure on the pipelines, for example — and some big initiatives. In September, a Singaporean firm inked a deal to build a $733 million offshore oil terminal that's projected to double Basra's export capacity by early next year.

For all the activity, however, the oil sector has generated relatively few new jobs so far in a country where unemployment is estimated at 30 percent. Some say that Iraqi officials are focusing too heavily on oil when promoting agriculture and small business development would do more to spur employment.

"Nowhere in the world has the oil industry been the response to huge job-creation needs, particularly for young people," said Ad Melkert, the U.N. special envoy to Iraq. "This requires an effort way beyond the oil industry."

BP says it's doubled the number of workers at Rumaila over the past 12 months to 10,000, although the company didn't specify how many were in new jobs.

The payoff for the oil majors could be massive. BP, for example, pledged last year to set aside $20 billion in a fund to compensate victims of the Gulf of Mexico spill. The company expects that Rumaila, where it heads a consortium that includes PetroChina and a state-owned Iraqi firm, one day could produce 2.85 million barrels of oil per day.

If it does, and with oil at today's price of about $90 a barrel, the field would generate $20 billion in about 11 weeks.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/01/2...-iraq-oil.html

The discovery of gas field in Kurdistan is the biggest in 30 years in Iraq

announced, "Heritage Oil" oil field discovered gas vast in Iraqi Kurdistan is one of the largest fields discovered so far in this country. The company estimated Canadian origin listed on the stock exchanges of London and Toronto that the field called the field Miran has a stock of up to 348 billion cubic meters of gas.

The company said in a statement that the largest gas field discovered in Iraq since thirty years, and the sixth largest field in the history of Iraq. The field is located in the northeast of the Iraqi Kurdistan region rich with fuel, the group owns 75% of it.

The company said it had begun studying the potential abuse of the field that could be made of its production to Europe via Turkey through a gas pipeline under construction, the European Nabucco, saying it was seeking to launch a production field in 2015.

However, this announcement has not been responsive to the London Stock Exchange, where share price down Group Heritage Oil rose 19.61% to 351 pence at around 14.30 GMT.

The stock market customers expect to be the exploitation of the field, and promising more Vabdoa disappointment because it does not contain only gas, while oil has a much higher market value.

Also expressed their concerns about the cost of investment to establish the necessary infrastructure to develop the field, such as the Nabucco line interface.

http://translate.google.co.uk/transl...n&hl=&ie=UTF-8

Education seized nearly 500 counterfeit and restore about 6 million dinars during the past four months

Inspector General at the Ministry of Education that the investigative committees in the office seized during the past four months 959 forged from ministry officials.

Muzaffar Yaseen said in a press statement that the Directorates of Education in Baghdad and the provinces transmitted through the past four months, 120 an administrative investigation to the Office of the Inspector, including 61 who completed an investigation, in addition to 74 investigations under way, and to bring the two investigations of the Integrity Commission.

He said the Inspector-General to continue the follow-up procedures on 273 cases of forgery with the General Directorates of Education in Baghdad and the provinces, pointing out that the magnitude of the amounts recovered as a result of the investigation and management audit amounted to 6.576 million dinars.

http://radionawa.com/ar/NewsDetailN....891&LinkID=151

Nujaifi and Shabibi: the independence of the central guarantee of Iraq's resources are not subject to seizure and confiscation proceedings

Met with House Speaker Abdul Aziz al-Najafi Usama afternoon Iraqi Central Bank Governor Dr Sinan Shabibi and economic adviser to the appearance of Dr Mohamed Saleh.

The media source that during the meeting discuss the issue of the Federal Court decision on independent bodies and the seriousness of the situation the central bank under the supervision of the government, where Shabibi said the decision would lose Iraq claimed responsibility for the protection of its assets and deposits abroad, and the independence of the Bank Central has been and remains the only guarantee for non-submission of financial resources of the Central Bank of Iraq outside of Iraq to the seizure and confiscation measures by the international creditors.

They emphasized the need to preserve the independence of the Central Bank as the only guarantee for non-submission of financial resources outside of the Central Bank of Iraq to the seizure and confiscation proceedings.


http://translate.google.co.uk/transl...n&hl=&ie=UTF-8

Iraqi Airways has accused companies and traders work on the bankruptcy

accused the Iraqi Airways Sunday Iraqi companies and merchants to influence the company to declare bankruptcy, noting at the same time that this was reflected in the performance of the associate, who began to retreat, causing aversion for the auditors.

The general director of Iraqi Airways Kifah Hassan Jabbar "There are points you want to bankrupt our traders and companies (did not identify) and should block the way to them," noting that "these attempts began to affect the company's reputation and track record."

Jabbar was speaking in a speech during a ceremony held at the company's Baghdad International Airport to mark 65 years of its founding in the presence of the correspondent of news agency Kurdistan (Rn).

Jabbar and student workers in the company to "cut off the road in front of these attempts by upgrading to work more", following the saying "shame we have to deal with the airline as just an ordinary department official."

"The performance of the associate in the company began to retreat away from the professional and even went so far as to declare bankruptcy in some quarters for the company," persisting in saying, "This announcement disregards the legal text."

Jabbar pointed out that the reason for the "indignation by citizens who are reviewing booking offices and stations because of ill-treatment which they are exposed (by the Associate), forcing them to resort to other companies."

In case the situation remains in place, "said Jabar," if it continued performance on what it is, it is likely to go bankrupt airlines in the next year."

But Iraq's Transport Ministry announced last month that Iraqi Airways will continue to work even if it declared bankruptcy.

And holds the Iraqi Airways is currently the task of the management and operation of air transport in the country through a joint operation with other countries.

The Ministry of Transport announced in late May of last year that the government has officially decided to resolve the Iraqi Airways to avoid the claims made by the Kuwaiti authorities against them in British courts.

The crisis erupted when the first flight of Iraqi Airways to launch a line to London after a hiatus of more than 20 years in early last May, and once the plane landed at the airport in London was waiting for a court ruling British to detain Iraqi plane, based on the claim made by the airline Kuwait against Iraqi counterparts.

And demands that the Kuwaiti company paid $ 1.2 billion, because of the takeover of the Iraqi regime, then on 17 aircraft owned by Kuwait Airways during its invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

http://www.aknews.com/ar/aknews/2/214545/

Russian firms urged to implement projects in Iraq

Iraqi Prime Minister Noori al-Maliki has asked a delegation representing Russia’s oil and gas producing firms to implement contracts in the country and invest in its reconstruction.

“I call on Russian firms to work in Iraq and contribute to the process of building and reconstruction. I am also keen to see horizons of cooperation expanded in all directions,” the prime minister told the delegation.

The meeting, according to the prime minister’s office, reviewed ties of cooperation “in all fields, particularly in oil and economic spheres.”

Maliki was reported to have asked for more frequent exchange of visits between the countries.

“I stress the importance of cooperation in the field of oil and gas investments and laying down of strategic foundations for cementing ties in this field,” Maliki said.

The head of the Russian delegation was reported to have reaffirmed his country’s desire to “develop bilateral ties in oil and gas development in Iraq. We register our support for what you (Maliki) are doing in this area.

“Time has come (for the Russian firms) for effective contribution to the (Iraqi) oil and gas sector.”

http://www.azzaman.com/english/index...01-27\kurd.htm

Basra Council: draft budget law of 2011, as the current development plans Clogged

Basra Governorate Council considered the draft budget law 2011, as the current frustrating and hinders the development plans of provinces, he said.

A source at the Media Council's (Nina) that "the Basra Governorate Council considered the draft budget law 2011, as the current frustrating and impeding the plans of the provincial development Vemoazinp development of regions and provinces in 2011 less than in previous years," adding that "the local government had been waiting like the rest of the provincial budget high in 2011 in line with the statements of members of the federal government to activate the role of local governments and further the trend towards decentralized systems."

"The draft law, according to a document the provincial council in Basra has not allocated a share of the financial revenues derived from border crossing points to the provinces that have outlets border as provided for in the law of the 2010 budget in addition to that, the draft budget law in 2011 adopted the standard Mahromep / addition to the number of population / in determining the share of the provinces to balance the development of regions and governorates, "noting that" there were not a reference to the standards that have been adopted in estimating the Mahromep each province, where it came from Basra in the chain of 11 among Iraq's provinces in the degree of Mahromep, this means that the Federal Government had forgot wars which took place in Basra, which caused not only to disrupt the movement of construction and building them, but the collapse of large infrastructure and the destruction of a lot of farmland and palm groves."

The source indicated that "Basra is still awaiting approval of the Ministry of Planning on the draft second meal of the budget of petro-dollars in 2010 and estimated allocations b / 500 / billion dinars, and waiting for approval the ministry's development projects Territories for the year 2011 and the amount of allocations (268) billion dinars, and is delayed approval of the Ministry of planning projects and the inadequacy of the instructions issued by the circumstances of the provinces of the reasons affecting the completion of projects and improve services."

http://translate.googleusercontent.c...JCkwlcIkDYWcqA

Local official: Anbar share of oil and gas do not meet needs of the population

A local official in Anbar province on Saturday that share of the province's oil and gas, "Low" and do not meet the need of the local population, calling at the same time the Federal Oil Ministry to increase its share according to population.

And identified the Iraqi Oil Ministry a month in February as the date of the signing of initialed the contract to develop gas field "crutch" in Anbar, with two "Kogas," South Korean and "Kazmunaigaz" for exploration and production Kazakh.

The Chair of the Energy Committee of the Board of Anbar and al-Rawi told Sam Kurdistan News (Rn) that "the share of the province of a few oil derivatives do not meet the needs of the people."

The Council declared Anbar province in October last opened the door for investment for all companies and the Iraqi and Arab world in the field of gas "crutch" which estimated the reserves of 5.6 trillion cubic feet.

The Ministry of Oil postponed last November, a contract for the field of "crutch" So to resolve the dispute between the Ministry and the Council of Anbar province on his investment.

The Anbar provincial council announced in the past for refusing to export gas field crutch as a raw material, and stipulate a condition that is the introduction of gas invested in manufacturing industries within the province to take advantage of it.

The narrator, "we raised several requests to increase the share but to no avail."

And went on to say "we hope to increase the quota by the number of growing population."

She drew the narrator that "the local bakeries and ovens throughout the cities of Anbar, we provide fuel and the same proportion by the distribution committees, and we hope that the isolates share on the share of the citizen to fill what we need derivatives of the homes of the population."

The work of committees of continuous distribution around the obstacles and problems faced by officials of the oil reservoirs in spite of "a few" share we receive from the Iraqi Oil Ministry.

And won two "Kogas," South Korean and "Kazmunaigaz" Exploration and Production's second-largest oil company in Kazakhstan contract to develop gas field crutch in Anbar province west of Iraq as part of the third licensing round launched by the Ministry of Oil and the end of last year.

The al-Anbar (110 km) west of Baghdad from the provinces rich in mineral wealth such as gold, phosphates, iron, sulfur, and silver, as well as gas.

He said the UAE ambassador in Iraq during his visit to Ramadi on 23 December last for (Rn) The stability of the situation in Anbar is an important factor to attract Arab and foreign investors to it, among them Emiratis.

Anbar was under the influence of al-Qaeda in the years that followed the fall of the former regime the spring of 2003, before rising up elements of the "Awakening" on the organization and affiliated groups under its banner in 2006.

According to the numbers and the Iraqi Ministry of Oil Iraq's production of crude oil will rise in the next six years to reach about 12 million barrels per day from 2.4 million bpd now.

http://www.aknews.com/ar/aknews/2/214286/

CBI warns of compromising its independence

Adviser warned the Iraqi Central Bank, of jeopardizing the independence of the bank, stressing that he has concerns about the decision to the Federal Court judge last link with a number of independent bodies referred to in the Constitution under the chairmanship of the government directly, inviting them to issue a clarification of its decision on the association and its independence.

Not the Federal High Court issued a decision ‬ 18 January, provides a link independent bodies referred to in the Iraqi constitution, prime minister directly, not under the chairmanship of the House of Representatives, and the decision came at the request of the Cabinet Office submitted to the Federal Court in the second of December of the year the past, to show a link bodies. He said the appearance of Mohammed Saleh, in a press statement, said that the decision of the Federal Court recently on a link a number of independent bodies, and dealt with the central bank and its association with the premiership, not the House of Representatives, ambiguous, and not enough to affirm the autonomy of the bank.

He added: It is preferable to sitting judges of the Federal Court with specialists at the Central Bank to discuss the new resolution of the Court, and affirm the autonomy of the Bank in formulating monetary policy for the country. He explained that the resolution, which was issued by the Federal Court, was vague in determining whether the law of the Central Bank of the biggest of the Law Council of Ministers on the one hand the monetary authority.

http://translate.googleusercontent.c...EpfxMDZY9p94nA

British Parliament Briefing Paper on Iraq

The British parliament has issued a briefing paper for MPs.

Written by Ben Smith, the paper is entitled “Iraq at the creation of its new government”.

Click here - http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/wp-...ing-190111.pdf