Thread: Iraq/Dinar News. (before Jan.20,2007)

Originally Posted by buddy54

Has anybody heard about the hydrocarbon law have they passed it yet
rumors of RV the 1/24/7 anything concrete?

The Oil Committee, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, will send the draft to cabinet next week for approval. After that it will go to parliament. Officials hope that the broad base of the negotiating team means it will pass easily.

......

"We hope the ratification of this law will be achieved no more than one month from now. This law is considered a major national project and achievement," Jihad told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Originally Posted by worf

Quote:
Originally Posted by shotgunsusie
for those members....






I don't want to get into a major mud slinging contest either. But I do want to make known my personal observation. There appears to me to a lot of immaturity going on in all directions. We need a Rodney King moment "Can't we all just get along?"

worf

i apologize for my outburst. i let emotions control my behavior and i apologize to all concerned.

Originally Posted by adm

Originally Posted by frathousemicrowave
Don't know if this was brought up yet or not but why do we think the CBI is putting this on the Arabic side of the exchange rate page the last 2 weeks?

"3. The Iraqi Central Bank announced the adoption of buying and selling rates for the dollar on Thursday, January 18, 2007 until the end of office hours on Sunday, which falls on January 21, 2007 and pledged to meet the demand for foreign currency without limit and regardless of the quantities required and all its customers."





Originally Posted by Treater
Look at the difference between the English Exchange rate page and the arabic one:

Exchange Rates
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I translated the middle part of the arabic page, and got this (the english page doesn't have this) :

- Note that :-

1. The sale price of remittances dinars (1323) / $.
2. The sale price cash dinars (1336) / $.
3. The cash purchase price (1334) dinars / $.
2-quantity sold in cash "in the amount of $ (5.925.000) and the amount of remittances (730.000) dollars.

3-declare the Iraqi Central Bank made buying and selling rates for the dollar on Wednesday, which falls on 27 / 12 / 2006 in the days subsequent to the end of office hours on Sunday, which falls on January 7, 2007 and pledged to meet the demand for foreign currency without limit and regardless of the quantities required and all its customers and is committed to purchase all the quantities offered by banks for the same prices posted above "and maintained without change for subsequent days.



Maybe something or can I say "we've seen this before."

i try to always post the breakdown from the arabic side every auction. if you look back on my posts directly following the auction postings you will see them. no one ever made mention of them so i assumed everyone already knew about them and didnt just think i was posting random stuff, lol.

British General Discusses Realities of Iraq

British General Discusses Realities of Iraq
Rebuilding Iraq is like playing "three-dimensional chess in a dark room," but multinational forces will continue to move forward there, the senior British military representative in Iraq said today.

British army Lt. Gen. Graeme Lamb, deputy commander of Multinational Force Iraq, first went to Iraq in 1991. He's currently serving his fourth term there and has developed an understanding of the country's complexity, he told reporters in the Pentagon via satellite connection from Iraq.

"It's hard pounding; this is as complex as I've ever seen anything I've done," he said. "But 'hard pounding' is what Wellington said at Waterloo before he went on to win as part of a coalition," Lamb said, referring to the Battle of Waterloo, in which Napoleon was defeated by a multinational coalition.

Infusing his briefing with historical references, Lamb, a self-described Scotsman with a sense of humor, said he sees steady increases of progress, hope and opportunity in Iraq upon each return.

"Don't forget (the Iraqi government) has only been in power for some 240 days. It took (Americans) 11 years to write your constitution; we're still trying to write ours," Lamb quipped.

"I still believe we can do this, ... and that's just the way I see it," he said. "I don't do optimism; I don't do pessimism; I just do realism."

He said Iraqis are showing unprecedented commitment to reconstructing their country. "We are judged by our actions in this world," Lamb said, "and I do see (Iraqis) taking the right actions.

"I see the Sunni community looking towards coming back into the political process," he said. "I see this government, this prime minister, dealing with the militias."
Lamb said additional U.S. troops sent as part of President Bush's new strategy will aid reconstruction efforts.

"The president has committed forces," Lamb said. "As a ground commander, you can't ask for more. I see American soldiers, airmen, sailors, Marines and civilians, none of them shrinking from their duty."

But, Lamb emphasized he sees "things still being difficult, very difficult."

When asked if the roughly 6,200 British troops in Basra had been defeated by militias, Lamb said he shies away from "d-words" like "decisive" and "defeated" when discussing operations.

"(The British army's 10th) Division is out there on Operation Sinbad right now, independent, operating and making a difference in the town," Lamb said. "I don't think we're defeated in any sense."

Militias are making some inroads in Basra, he said, but he added that such difficulties are not insurmountable.

He also discussed the progress of Iraqi security forces. Lamb told reporters he recently met with a battalion commander in Ramadi who reported "huge progress" in the town.
"In Ramadi four months ago, I don't think there were any policemen in the town," he said. "There are 791 now. They were shot at from a building, (then) 200 policemen were drawn together, surrounded the building, cleared it," he said. "That's just an example of some progress."

Operations ahead this year will represent an active and aggressive transition, Lamb said.

"We mentor, we monitor, we train with ... Iraqi forces to ensure that they're capable," he said.


Source: U.S. Department of Defense

[email protected]

Khaleej Times Online - Iraq oil law would distribute revenues

Iraq oil law would distribute revenues
(DPA)

20 January 2007

WASHINGTON - A high level Iraq government committee has hammered out a proposed law that would give the federal government authority over distribution of oil revenues, The New York Times reported Saturday.


In the story reported out of Baghdad, Iraqi Planning Minister Ali Baban, a member of the Sunni-dominated Tawafaq party, was quoted as saying that the proposed draft law would ‘give us the basis of unity in this country.’

Equal distribution of oil revenues has been a key issue in escalating sectarian violence in Iraq, where the oil-rich regions are dominated by the majority Shia population or Kurds in the north.

While those two groups insist they should control the revenues, the minority Sunnis, who lost power when the late president Saddam Hussein was ousted, charge they are being cut out of benefiting from the nation’s resources.

The Gulf Daily News in Bahrain reported Wednesday that the draft law will go before the cabinet ‘early next week,’ quoting Oil Ministry spokesman Asim Jihad.

The draft would call for the Iraqi prime minister to oversee contracts and review contracts already signed under Hussein or by the Kurdish government, Jihad said.

The United States has been demanding that the Iraqi government take control of the country’s oil reserves to help cool down sectarian bitterness.

Published: January 20, 2007
BAGHDAD, Jan. 19 — After months of tense bargaining, a cabinet-level committee has produced a draft law governing Iraq’s vast oil fields that would distribute all revenues through the federal government and grant Baghdad wide powers in exploration, development and awarding major international contracts.

The draft, described Friday by several members of the committee, could still change and must be approved by the Iraqi cabinet and Parliament before it becomes law. Negotiations have veered off track in the past, and members of the political and sectarian groups with interest in the law could still object as they read it more closely.

But if approved in anything close to its present form, the law would appear to settle a longstanding debate over whether the oil industry and its revenues should be overseen by the central government or the regions dominated by Kurds in the north and Shiite Arabs in the south, where the richest oil fields are located.

The draft comes down firmly on the side of central oversight, a decision that advocates for Iraq’s unity are likely to trumpet as a triumph. Because control of the oil industry touches so directly on the interests of all Iraq’s warring sectarian groups, and therefore the future of the country, the proposed law has been described as the most critical piece of pending legislation.

“This will give us the basis of the unity of this country,” said Ali Baban, the Iraqi planning minister and a member of the Sunni-dominated Tawafaq party who serves on the negotiating committee. “We pushed for the center in Baghdad, but we didn’t neglect the Kurds and other regions,” Mr. Baban said.

Negotiators said that the final weeks of wrangling on the draft focused on a federal committee that would be set up to review the oil contracts. Kurdish, and to some extent Shiite, parties wanted to maintain regional control over the contracts, while Sunni Arabs, with few oil resources on territories they dominate, insisted that the federal committee have the power to approve contracts, rather than just reviewing them and offering advice.

The negotiators appear to have finessed that issue by allowing the regions to initiate the process of tendering contracts before sending them to Baghdad for approval. To limit the powers of the committee, they also have drawn up an exacting set of criteria to govern the deliberations of the committee rather than simply relying on its independent discretion. And in a bow to the Kurds, who objected to the use of the word “approve” in describing the committee’s duties, the draft law says instead that the committee may review and reject contracts that do not meet the criteria.

The draft law would also radically restructure parts of Iraq’s state-controlled oil industry by giving wide independence — possibly leading to eventual privatization — to the government companies that control oil exports, the maintenance of pipelines and the operation of oil platforms in the Persian Gulf.

The law would also revive the Iraqi National Oil Company, a countrywide umbrella organization that was essentially closed by Saddam Hussein.

At the same time, the law would place substantial administrative authorities outside Baghdad by allowing any region that produces at least 150,000 barrels of oil a day to create its own operating company, according to Hussain al-Shahristani, the Iraqi oil minister and member of a powerful coalition of Shiite political parties who also serves on the negotiating committee.

Barham Salih, a deputy prime minister and the chairman of the negotiating committee, said that the precise wording of clauses could still change. He was speaking by telephone from Iraqi Kurdistan, where Mr. Salih, a Kurd, said he was still working to cement support for some provisions in the draft law.

“This is the most important piece of legislation that Iraq will adopt, and it is not a surprise that it is taking long, tedious rounds of negotiations,” Mr. Salih said. “We are close, but we have not yet closed the deal. We are making progress and need to continue.”

The developments come with several additional cautions, not the least of which is that in Iraq’s chaotic wartime environment, even laws that do get passed can have little impact. In one example of a document arrived at through similar negotiations, Iraq’s Constitution, it remains unclear what effect many of the fastidiously negotiated clauses are having in the governance of the country.

And even though Iraq’s main political and sectarian groups have been represented in the talks over the oil law, it is still possible that members of those groups could bridle as the draft is scrutinized more widely.

As a case in point, the Kurdistan regional government issued a statement on Friday criticizing an Oil Ministry spokesman for saying that the oil law had been agreed upon unanimously and put in final form.

“Although the process of drafting the oil law is nearing completion, the important annexes to the law are still pending,” the statement said.

Some of those annexes will address how to deal with fields that are already producing oil under existing contracts, how to begin taking bids for drilling new wells in known fields and exploring areas where currently unknown oil fields could be located.

The committee achieved a breakthrough of sorts in December, when negotiators took a step toward central control by agreeing that all oil revenues should first go to the central government before being sent back to the regions in amounts proportional to population.

But the talks bogged down on the question of whether the committee, to be called the Federal Oil and Gas Council, would be called upon to approve contracts proposed by the regions or just review those contracts and offer advice. In its current form, the draft law avoids the word “approve” and in effect gives the committee veto power.

Whatever the language, Mr. Shahristani, the oil minister, said, the committee will in fact pass judgment on each contract, even when it originates in a proposed deal between a company and one of the oil-producing regions.

But the committee must make its decision based on specific guidelines, like a directive to maximize profits for Iraq and to keep the contracting process transparent, Mr. Shahristani said. And there are other checks and balances written into the law. For example, while the regions can propose their own deals, they will have to work with companies that have been “pre-qualified” in Baghdad.

Directives like that could still generate objections in Kurdistan, which wants as much freedom as possible to write its own contracts.

The draft law also specifies that technical experts in the Oil Ministry are to be included in the process at all levels. It is the ministry that will be called upon to write a plan for which oil fields will be developed and drilled first, and which ones will follow. The federal council would simply be called upon to endorse that plan or send it back for revisions.

The Oil Ministry would also be closely involved in developing “model contracts” to be used as templates at all levels of Iraq’s oil industry.

Having an oil law will in principle make it easier to attract international companies with the resources and expertise that the country so desperately needs. Still, hovering over all the negotiations is the question of whether companies will want to do business in Iraq.

Mr. Shahristani, for one, says that because of the financial stakes, companies are already reaching out.

“The international companies keep contacting me — every week, without exception,” Mr. Shahristani said. “They are all very, very keen.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/20/wo..._r=1&th&emc=th

World
Jan. 20, 2007, 1:24AM

Draft law gives oil powers to Baghdad
Centralizing control of profits and industry is called a triumph for Iraq's 'unity'


By JAMES GLANZ
New York Times

U.S. military interventions since '50s BAGHDAD, IRAQ — After months of tense bargaining, a Cabinet-level committee has produced a draft law governing Iraq's vast oil fields that would distribute all revenues through the federal government and grant Baghdad wide powers in exploration, development and awarding international contracts.
The draft, described Friday by several members of the committee, could still change and must be approved by the Iraqi Cabinet and Parliament before it becomes law.

If approved in anything close to its present form, the law would appear to settle a longstanding debate about whether the oil industry and its revenues should be overseen by the central government or the regions dominated by Kurds in the north and Shiite Arabs in the south, where the richest oil fields are located.

The draft comes down firmly on the side of central oversight, a decision advocates for Iraq's unity are likely to trumpet as a triumph. Because control of the oil industry touches directly on the interests of all Iraq's warring groups, and therefore the future of the country, the proposal has been described as the most critical piece of legislation.

"This will give us the basis of the unity of this country," said Ali Baban, the Iraqi planning minister and a member of the Sunni-dominated Tawafuq Party who serves on the negotiating committee.

"We pushed for the center in Baghdad, but we didn't neglect the Kurds and other regions," Baban said.

Negotiators said the final weeks of wrangling on the draft focused on a federal committee that would be set up to review the oil contracts. Kurdish, and to some extent Shiite, parties wanted to maintain regional control of the contracts, while Sunni Arabs, with few oil resources on territories they dominate, insisted that the federal committee have the power to approve contracts, rather than just reviewing them and offering advice.


Regions to initiate process
The negotiators appear to have finessed that issue by allowing the regions to initiate the process of tendering contracts before sending them to Baghdad for approval.

The draft law also would radically restructure parts of Iraq's state-controlled, and often lethargic, oil industry by giving wide independence — possibly leading to eventual privatization — to the government companies that control oil exports, the maintenance of pipelines and the operation of oil platforms in the Persian Gulf. The law also would revive the Iraqi National Oil Co., a countrywide umbrella organization that was essentially shut down by Saddam Hussein.

At the same time, the law would place substantial administrative authorities outside Baghdad by allowing any region that produces at least 150,000 barrels of oil a day to create an operating company, according to Hussain al-Shahristani, the Iraqi oil minister and member of a powerful coalition of Shiite political parties who also serves on the negotiating committee.


Wording could change
Barham Salih, a deputy prime minister and chairman of the negotiating committee, said the precise wording of clauses could be revised.

"This is the most important piece of legislation that Iraq will adopt, and it is not a surprise that it is taking long, tedious rounds of negotiations," Salih said.

The developments come with several additional cautions, not the least of which is that in Iraq's chaotic wartime environment, even laws that do get passed can have little impact on the street.

Even though Iraq's main political and sectarian groups have been represented in the negotiations over the oil law, it is still possible that members of those groups could bridle as the draft is scrutinized.

The committee achieved a breakthrough of sorts in December, when negotiators took a step toward central control by agreeing that all oil revenues should first go to the central government before being sent back to the regions in amounts proportional to population.

But the talks bogged down on the question of whether the committee, to be called the Federal Oil and Gas Council, would be called upon to approve contracts proposed by the regions or just review those contracts and offer advice. In its current form, the draft law avoids the word "approve" and in effect gives the committee veto power.

Whatever the wording, said al-Shahristani, the oil minister, the committee will in fact pass judgment on each contract, even when it originates in a proposed deal between a company and one of the oil-producing regions.

Draft law would give oil powers to Baghdad | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Translated version of http://www.aladalanews.com/

This week. Final draft of a bill to put oil to the Council of Ministers

Baghdad-Justice Minister said that the oil final draft of a bill to put oil this week to the Council of Ministers for approval to be sent later to the House of Representatives

For the passage of legislation after debate it. The Hussein Shahrastani in a statement issued yesterday, I received a copy of justice, that the draft law put upon the Council of Ministers after it got the approval of the Energy Council unanimously adopted with some amendments. The statement added that "the law confirms that the resources generated by the sales of oil going to the central fund one and distributed to all Iraqis in the provinces, governorates and to the rate of population and pointed out that" the law will restore activity for the national petroleum company, which will be responsible on the development of fields and increase production and export and will be the petroleum industry basic However Iraqi skills, keen to make their experiences of the people and added that "the law will allow by offering contracts on the petroleum companies a big global should be taken after ascertaining from Rassantha and to accept the competition for the development of some the fields to achieve the highest value for Iraq, and competition will be before for all will not be considered for the nationality of the company but must be firms were technology for the development of our farms and, as soon as possible and said Shahrastani is that the law proved the bases and develop policies and plans of oil for the development of balanced in all regions of Iraq. He added : "Now all parties agree, everyone believes that this law a major achievement and a national project that do not now exist differences on the law and not from our brothers in Kurdistan or the other.

Mr. Hakim : Iraqi people must continue to strive to achieve its objectives

،Baghdad / justice : His Eminence, Mr. Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the United Iraqi Alliance bloc, it is known that terrorist groups seeking to kill Iraqis.

The Iraqi people must be fought and continue to achieve its objectives, and we are optimistic that we can achieve security, we in the political process forward, because this is the only option. His Eminence We will continue and we will seek to preserve the unity of Iraq and the Iraqi people's unity and the territorial integrity of Iraq and will do what we can, and the vast majority of areas in Iraq are safe. Concerning the national reconciliation said his eminence We Let us to it and for the law of the uprooting the Baath, not all the Baath are the Sunni and had no of the Baath and the Shiites, and perhaps the majority of the Ba'thists the Iraqis are Shi'a, true that the majority of leaderships the Baath are from the year, year are not our goal, who entered the political process, we are encourage them f we call upon them to engage greater in the political process, Today a third of the country's institutions However year, and are the partners really us, as that this government is the government of National Unity and not the However coalition Everyone participant was assigned. On the issue of dialogue with regional and neighboring countries, said, we always strive to be a station for Iraq and the convergence of convergence and the quest for dialogue between America and Iran and Syria, and this is the way they want to go, that does not happen any stiffening believe will have positive repercussions on Iraq. Details on pages 3

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President Talabani : Iraqis are all eager to uphold the century.

The Iraqi government : for no particular day to announce the security plan ... Baghdad / Justice : Dr. Ali Skinner, "the spokesman for the Iraqi government that no particular day to announce the security plan not linked to the implementation of the arrival of foreign forces, but there are arrangements

Conducted by the field commanders to activate plans. " He said, "certainly there will be some who are angry at the security plan because they would be harmed restore security in Baghdad, but the Iraqi government to Atsthdv one. On the other hand, President Jalal Talabani urged Arab countries to return their diplomats to Iraq and the highest levels, he said, pointing out that the absence of Arab diplomatic reflect negatively on relations between Iraq sister Arabs, and gives mixed picture of the situation in the country. According to a statement issued by the presidency yesterday, and received a copy of justice that President Talabani vowed during his meeting with the Arab ambassadors in Damascus Wednesday to provide protection to the ambassadors of Arabs outside the international zone. The statement said that Talabani explained that the presence of ambassadors in Baghdad gives them the opportunity to learn of the situation in a clear and genuine, dealt away from the media. The statement indicated that the president off the Taliban denied the existence of plans to partition Iraq, and said, "These delusions are unfounded, and that the Iraqis are all eager to uphold the century." On the other hand, President Talabani met with a number of leaders of the Baath Party led by Syrian Assistant National Secretary of the Party Mohammed Said Bakhitan. A statement issued by the Presidency of the Republic that during the meeting, which was Thursday discussed the historical relations between the political forces and the Iraqi Baath Party in Syria. The statement pointed out that the two sides expressed their determination to upgrade bilateral relations between the two brotherly countries and ways of strengthening bilateral cooperation to serve the interests of the Syrian and Iraqi peoples.

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