Thread: Iraq/Dinar News. before Febuary 2nd 2006

An agreement between Baghdad and Damascus to resume importing oil derivatives

(Voice of Iraq) - 22-01-2007
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In light of the aggravation of the crisis of fuel in northern Iraq ... An agreement between Baghdad and Damascus to resume importing oil derivatives
Baghdad-Adel Mahdi life-22 / 01 / 07 / /

The Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein Shahrastani that the ministry <agreed with Syria on the delivery of oil derivatives contracted to the city of Hasaka Syrian border, on the movement of Iraqi trucks to areas in the north of the country, which is suffering from a sharp crisis in fuels, as a result of imports from Turkey and Syria, and the small quantities produced in the Baiji refinery in the south of Mosul because of the poor security situation>.

He pointed out that the ministry Shahrastani <now trying to activate contracts with the Turkish side, particularly as most of these contracts amounts outstanding of the companies processed>, stressing that <security problems that are preventing the delivery of oil products from the Baiji refinery to the northern areas>.

He revealed the existence of <scarcity of liquid gas in the article>, He gave it to <adoption of the ministry operating gas plant south after rehabilitation by one of the American companies that have operations in the rehabilitation and maintenance>. And I hope that <the company completed its work next month>.

He explained that his ministry Shahrastani <seeks to facilitate the access of citizens on oil derivatives necessary kerosene and liquid gas, gasoline and gas oil, through talks conducted with suppliers and with the neighboring countries represented, as well as increased domestic production after the elimination of obstacles to the production process beyond the control of the ministry>.

Reference is made to the emergence of signs of a sharp crisis in the rule kerosine in Baghdad. Despite the support of the government approving the importation of oil derivatives, but the percentage of deficit in the large quantities, according to an official source in the Iraqi Oil Ministry, pointing out that the deficit in the imported quantities of a substance liquid gas reached 65%, and benzene imported 36%. While the deficit in the quantities of kerosene imported about 84%, and gas oil imported 50%.

The source pointed out that the deficit in oil derivatives produced by local refineries amounted to 80% of liquid gas and 68% for benzene, and 35% in each of kerosene and gas oil. He explained that the quantities imported covering 60% of the needs of the country, despite the obstacles facing their arrival. He believed that the possibility of the parliament to raise the government's support for importing oil derivatives from neighboring countries, because it was a serious overload the Iraqi citizen. He pointed out that the imported quantities of benzene up to 6.7 million liters per day, with volume production of 7.5 million liters per day, taking the total available to 15 million liters a day, while the country's needs daily 22 million liters. He disclosed that in the event of a lifting of government support for the import of oil derivatives, will exceed the deficit in this article only 14 million liters a day.

Minister of Finance: support of oil derivatives continuous
Salary increases are calculated from this month, the dollar worth 1260 dinar this year and will drop to one thousand dinar soon
Translated by IRAQdirectory.com - [21/01/2007]


The Minister of Finance denied that the 2007 budget had lifted support for oil derivatives, and confirmed that his ministry had allocated the funds required for the new salary scale which will be implemented this month, but the Parliament did not approve the plan of implementation so far, pointing out that the value of the Iraqi dinar against the dollar will be 1260 dinar for this year with putting a fiscal policy to restore the strength of the Iraqi dinar. Minister of Finance, Baqer Azzubaidi, said that: the value of crude oil pumped from Iraqi oil fields to the refineries that belong to the Iraqi Oil Ministry worth seven billion dollars, which represent the government support for petroleum products; also, three billion dollars have been allocated from the financial budget to cover the expenses of constructing new refineries and maintaining the current ones, with a further $ 300 million to buy kerosene.

Azzubaidi explained that the revenues of selling petroleum products would remain in possession of the Ministry of Oil to be used for sustaining and developing other oil projects, pointing out that lifting the support on oil derivatives has only included the high-quality imported gasoline which is used in modern cars.

He also explained that the Ministry of Oil can purchase the necessary materials used in improving the derivatives from its own budget.

As for the salaries of government employees, the Minister of Finance said that: his ministry had issued directives to pay the salaries according to the new salary scale, but the Parliament has delayed the ratification on implementing the plan due to the lack of quorum which caused the delay in preparing the Parliament's own budget, approving the budget of the Supreme Judiciary Council and delaying the government from presenting the budget to the Parliament.

He pointed out that the new applications of Kurdistan government; including the deduction of its imports directly from the various imports, added another reason to delay the presentation of the budget.

He explained that the Ministry of Finance has put figures for the budget of the Ministry of Defense, considering it as a sovereign Ministry to settle its issue among the parties which called for considering it as a non-sovereign one.

Azzubaidi emphasized that the Ministry of Finance and in consultation with the Central Bank seeks to identify the exchange rate of the dollar at 1260 dinar during the this year. It also laid down a plan to restore the Iraqi dinar to its former era during the coming three years expressing his hope to stabilize its exchange rate at 1000 dinar for the dollar during the coming period. He pointing out that the inflation is not a fixed situation but a temporary one, and that one of its causes is the crisis of leaking goods into the Iraqi depths from the ports because of the terrorist operations; also, the rise of the prices of oil derivatives during crises forms another cause for inflation.

Regarding the current year budget, Azzubaidi described it as ambitious; eight billion dollars have been allocated for security for the first time, despite the allocation of large amounts for investment that will contribute to solve the crisis of unemployment and increase economic growth by 8-10%, so as to ensure the completion of service projects in all governorates.

He said the remaining funds from the final account of last years amounted to eight billion dollars, and that the government would provide final budget to the Parliament during the first quarter of this year.
Prepared & Translated By:
IRAQdirectory.com Team
Iraq Daily Business Updates

http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=2994

Whoa...there's a lot of words in this article that are just not making sense to me...

Sydney Morning Herald - 7 hours ago

January 22, 2007 - 7:04AM

Iraq Shi'ites reach political deal
The political movement of Iraqi cleric and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr says it will end a two-month boycott of parliament, smoothing over a rift with its Shi'ite allies in the US-backed government.

The political reconciliation with a group viewed with suspicion in Washington came after US forces suffered their third deadliest day in Iraq since the start of war in 2003.

Twenty-five US soldiers were killed on Saturday in clashes with gunmen, a helicopter crash and other violence.

The bloody toll came three days before President George W Bush is expected to use his State of the Union address to Congress to argue again for his plan to send thousands more troops to Iraq, despite opposition from Democrats who now control both houses of the legislature.

The US military said on Sunday that about 3,200 soldiers had arrived in Baghdad, the first of some 17,000 reinforcements to the city, the epicentre of sectarian violence that kills hundreds of Iraqis every week.

The US military blames much of the violence on the Mehdi Army militia of Sadr, whose political movement on Sunday ended the boycott of parliament, soothing a rift with its Shi'ite allies in Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government.

The Sadrists announced a boycott in November to press their demand for a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and to protest against a meeting between Maliki and Bush.

"We are ending our boycott of the ministries and the parliament," Bahaa al-Araji, a senior member of the Sadrist group, told a news conference with the ruling Shi'ite Alliance.

Parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani said an all-party committee would discuss calls for a timetable for a US troop withdrawal and the renewal of the UN mandate for the US presence in Iraq.

"This is a new beginning," he told the news conference.

"We want to say to the world that an Iraqi solution for Iraqi problems is the key, and others must support these solutions."

Bush announced earlier this month that he was sending about 20,000 troops to try to prevent all-out civil war between Shi'ite Muslims and the once-dominant Sunni minority.

Translated version of http://www.aladala.net/home/index.php

Sunday, January 21, 2007-number (899)

Today, the House of Representatives held its open
Baghdad / Justice : The Deputy Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Sheikh Khaled al-Attiyah that the Council will hold a meeting today, Sunday, contrary to the news which reported that Sunday will be an official holiday. He said al-Attiyah told reporters yesterday : that the meeting will be held on the scheduled date for continuing research on the agenda of the Council "and the Speaker of the House Mahmoud Almshahadani a number of deputies have complained of the absence of many of their colleagues, thus affecting the quorum and prevented the vote on many decisions.

Where is Scota? His valuable posts updating the buys and sells are missed. I need this Info., if nothing else to confirm it is indeed happening. Scota. Pleaseeeeeeeeeee come back and give us an update. Thxs,

Gloribee

Originally Posted by ordinaryseawoman

HUH?

The leaders agree on the draft law of oil
Iraqi leaders agree on the draft law of oil
Translated by IRAQdirectory.com - [21/01/2007]

Assim Jihad, the spokesman for the Iraqi Oil Ministry, said on Wednesday that a special committee agreed on the final version of the draft law of oil to determine the rules on which depend the division of revenues and increasing the production.
Jihad said that the bill drafted by a number of senior national and regional leaders provides for the establishment of a federal committee headed by the Prime Minister and have the power to supervise all contracts as well as reviewing the existing agreements signed in the era of former President Saddam Hussein, and the agreements signed by the Kurdish regional government.

Jihad said that the Committee had completed the drafting of the law on Tuesday evening and all members of the Committee agreed unanimously and will be submitted to the government early next week.
The approval on an oil law helps in settling possible differences among ethnic and religious groups in Iraq on the division of the third largest reserves of crude oil in the world, was a major demand of the United States to provide more military support to the government of national unity.

Jihad continued that everyone considers this law a great achievement and a national project and there are no differences on it.
Jihad said that the committee headed by Deputy Prime Minister, Barham Salih, will present the draft law to the government next week for approval, and then the law will be referred to Parliament, hopefully, to be approved by it as well.

The law provides a mechanism for a central management of oil revenues to be distributed to the various regions, later.

Jihad continued that the law provides clear restrictions to ensure that all contracts in Iraq's interest.

Jihad refused to determine who will negotiate with international companies, but said that the Federal Board would have the final say in the approval of contracts.

High sources in the oil sector said last month that regions could negotiate with major oil companies on crude contracts and the development of oil fields, but the central authority must approve them.

Iraq strongly needs foreign investments to revive its shattered economy which relies heavily on oil export revenues.

The division of oil is an important factor in sectarian strife in Iraq; the southern oil fields around Basra are located in an area dominated by rival factions of the Shiite political forces, some of them are close to Iran. The northern fields lie on the outskirts of the Kurdish region around the city of Kirkuk which the Kurds want to annex as their regional capital; while Arabs and Turkomen accuse Kurdish militias to carry out ethnic cleansing before the referendum on the future of the city provided by the Constitution and scheduled to take place this year.

The Arab Sunni minority, who dominated the country in the era of former President Saddam Hussein, are concentrated in Baghdad and the surrounding areas to the north and west where there are not much known oil reserves.

The Sunnis insist that the central government in Baghdad should control the oil sector despite the adoption of a new constitution, sponsored by the United States and opposed by most of the Sunnis, granting some authorities to recently formed federal regions with respect to oil and gas.

http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=2996

combine this information with the article posted by dang about the laws being passed yesterday (early next week).

Originally Posted by shotgunsusie

combine this information with the article posted by dang about the laws being passed yesterday.

My "boots" have said there was a signing ceremony, but were not sure what it was. There was bickering over wording, a signing did happen. Iraqi's are big on ceremonys...special pens, photos and such. It was a big to do from what i gather.

Gloribee

Originally Posted by Gloribee

My "boots" have said there was a signing ceremony, but were not sure what it was. There was bickering over wording, a signing did happen. Iraqi's are big on ceremonys...special pens, photos and such. It was a big to do from what i gather.

Gloribee

GRABBIN YA UP AND KISSIN YA RIGHT ON THE FACE!!!!!!

WOoTTTTTT!!!!!!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gloribee
My "boots" have said there was a signing ceremony, but were not sure what it was. There was bickering over wording, a signing did happen. Iraqi's are big on ceremonys...special pens, photos and such. It was a big to do from what i gather.

Gloribee

Originally Posted by shotgunsusie

GRABBIN YA UP AND KISSIN YA RIGHT ON THE FACE!!!!!!

WOoTTTTTT!!!!!!

GRABBIN YA UP AND KISSIN YA RIGHT ON THE FACE!!!!!!

ME TOOOO

Originally Posted by shotgunsusie

GRABBIN YA UP AND KISSIN YA RIGHT ON THE FACE!!!!!!

WOoTTTTTT!!!!!!

Me three Gloribee!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lee