Thread: Iraq/Dinar News to April 19, 2007 10PM CST

Appologize if previously posted.

Analysis
Iraq Oil Law Turns Back the Clock to 1951
U.S. Supported Legislation Pressures Iraq to Transform Oil Industry
By SANDRA HERNANDEZ Posted 20 hr. 48 min. ago

The supplementary spending bill passed by Congress last month contained one of the most telling pieces of Iraq-related legislation since the U.S. invasion, and it wasn't the August 31, 2008, deadline for withdrawing U.S. troops. It was an obscure and little-understood bill called the Iraqi Hydrocarbons Law, and it could dramatically undermine the economic and political progress of Iraq.
The Hydrocarbons Law contains two fundamental provisions, the first governing how Iraq will distribute revenues from its 115 billion barrels of oil reserves--the second-largest after Saudi Arabia's. The second provision will allow regional governments to negotiate production contracts with foreign oil companies.
Should Iraq's parliament pass the oil law, it will effectively return the country's oil industry to the conditions of pre-1951 Iraq. Yet it is under extreme pressure to do just that.
The spending bill makes the oil law one of many "benchmarks" tying Iraqi political progress with continued American military support. That means that if Iraq's parliament fails to pass the Hydrocarbons bill, then the U.S. could in theory withdraw troops before the 2008 deadline. At the very least, it might cease to provide protection to Iraqi parliament members.
Iraq nationalized its oil industry in 1951, taking control of the country's oil reserves away from international oil companies (IOCs) and putting them in the hands of the Iraqi government, and later a state-owned Iraqi oil company. Henceforth, IOCs could only work as contractors for the state. Nationalization gave Iraq a bigger cut of its oil profits and greater control over all aspects of the oil industry, from drilling to exploration to refining. Today, this arrangement prevails in Arab oil producers like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
The Iraqi oil law undoes all of this.
Approved by the Iraqi council of ministers in March, the law permits regional governments to enter into contracts of up to 20 years for production, and up to 12 years for exploration in 65 sites around the country. That would leave Iraq’s National Oil Company in direct control of less than one-fifth of the country’s 80 oil fields.
The length of such contracts would allow foreign oil companies to sit on Iraq's oil for years until the security situation improves, delaying the revival of Iraq's devastated economy.
What is more, the law focuses on exploration and expansion of Iraq's industry--that is, new drilling--rather bringing existing oil fields back online. Iraq’s oil infrastructure has been crippled by acts of sabotage since the start of the war; what it needs most right now is investment to bring production technology up-to-date.
A New York Times editorial praised the oil law for “equitably distributing oil revenues,” while The Nation's Chris Parenti (sub.req.) noted lamely that a proposal for distributing revenue son a per-capita basis might help de-escalate sectarian conflict.
In fact, by devolving negotiating power to regional governments, the law promotes competition for foreign oil contracts, potentially exacerbating sectarian tensions. In effect, the law looks at oil as "a prize to be divided rather than a resource to support public investment and development", said Kamil Mahdi, an expert in Middle East economics at the University of Exeter, in remarks at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs this week.
One contract with the Kurdish Regional Government would give foreign companies a 40 percent cut of profits, said Mahdi. Clearly, it makes little sense to discuss equitable distribution of oil revenues within the country if such a large chunk will be going to non-Iraqis.
Government ministers and Iraqi oil unions, which represent tens of thousands of workers, have denounced the law, but it remains to be seen whether parliament will overcome enormous outside pressure to pass it.
The oil law has raised nary an eyebrow in Washington. One exception was Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), who called it “a concerted effort to ensure that American oil companies are granted access to Iraqi oil fields” and called on Congress to remove it from the spending bill’s list of performance benchmarks. Otherwise, lawmakers have hailed the oil law’s passage by Iraq’s Council of Ministers as a milestone for sectarian cooperation.
Besides opening Iraq’s doors to oil companies, the law might also benefit American interests by undermining Iraqi membership in OPEC. By putting so much of the oil sector under foreign control, the law would make it extremely difficult for Iraq to implement OPEC quotas. “It’s an anti-OPEC policy,” said Mahdi.
The future of Iraq’s oil is not a zero-sum game. Foreign oil companies have a constructive role to play in the sector, just as they do in neighboring Arab countries. But only a drastically revised law can make that possible.

IraqSlogger: Iraq Oil Law Turns Back the Clock to 1951

Will Asian firms win oil deals in Iraq?

Will Asian firms win oil deals in Iraq? Translated by IRAQdirectory.com - [13/04/2007]

Despite the accusations directed by some observers to the administration of President George
Bush that he launched war against Iraq with the aim of controlling its oil resources, a number of Asian oil companies, especially from China, India, Vietnam and Indonesia, may win the first foreign contracts of investment in Iraq's oil sector.

While the Iraqi Parliament is still making further consultations on the new oil law, which would regulate the working conditions of foreign oil companies in Iraq as well as how to distribute the proceeds of oil exports, the Iraqi government intends to continue working with those companies from Asian
States, which had won previous deals during the rule of the late President Saddam Hussein.

James Black, a large contributor to the "Cambridge" Institution for energy research and specialized in Middle East affairs, said: "The Chinese may announce new contracts with Iraq in the next few months", if the current progress in consultations on the new oil law continues.

Oil expert, Falah al-Jabouri, who worked as an adviser to a number of oil ministers of Iraq and a number of "OPEC" countries, said : "Asian companies have many additional advantages against Western companies, such as: these companies did not pay any attention, in the past, to Western sanctions on Iraq, and they know Iraqi oilfields very well".

Al-Jabouri hinted that the Chinese may win the first contracts, under the new oil law, in the central southern Iraq while Vietnamese may gain the right to work south of the country, and the Indians along the lines with Kuwait, as for the Indonesians, they may win the right to work in the desert west of Baghdad.

The Iraqi oil expert, pointed out that the initial contracts with Asian companies will be relatively limited, explaining that the offer from the Chinese company, includes the extraction of 70 thousand barrels of oil per day, while the Vietnamese company will extract 60 thousand barrels per day.

The Energy Committee in the Iraqi Parliament will hold a symposium on the "controversial" draft law on oil and gas, in the Emirate of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, under the slogan "scientific and technical reading in the light of national interests of Iraq".

The symposium will be chaired by Sheikh Khalid al-Attiyah, first deputy chairman of the Iraqi parliament, and attended by a number of Iraqi political figures, including: Dr. Barham Salih, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister, Dr. Hussein Shahrastani, oil minister and Ali Baban, Minister of Planning and Development Cooperation, as well as the oil minister in "Kurdistan" region, in addition to a number of the Iraqi parliament’s members, and a group of experts in the field of oil.

The symposium aims to discuss the draft law of oil and gas and the new strategic and technical dimensions of this law which will organize the work of the Iraqi oil sector, before submitting it to the Iraqi parliament for discussion and ratification.

Iraqi media quoted Sheikh Khaled al-Attiyah, as saying that the holding of this seminar outside Iraq, "is to provide a suitable atmosphere for the discussion of the bill, away from the political tensions at home, and ensure more open atmosphere of learning all minute details that could be raised during the symposium, as well as to enable a number of dignitaries who can not travel to Iraq because of the security situation from attending the seminar".

The Presidential Council had referred the Iraqi oil and gas law, which was approved by the government of Maliki, to the parliament for discussion and voting on it, and that created angry reactions by some political blocs which saw in it "a waste of national wealth which will be captive to foreign investments to certain States, and deprive companies in some countries from participation, because of their countries’ political stands".

Other political blocs condemned their Ministers voting for the Law, which was considered "a personal opinion," that does not express the point of view of these blocks.

http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=3619

Second Baghdad Bridge Bombed, Eight Killed
Jadiriya Bridge Remains Standing, Unlike Sarafiya Bridge Bombed Thursday
Posted 0 hr. 7 min. ago


By Saad Mohsen
Baghdad, Apr 14, (VOI) – Eight civilians were killed and 13 others wounded when a vehicle rigged with explosives blew up on a bridge in central Baghdad, an Iraqi police source said on Saturday. "A suicide bomber detonated his vehicle on the al-Jadiriya bridge on Saturday morning, killing eight people, wounding 13 others and damaging several nearby civilian vehicles," the source told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). The source said security forces sealed off the area while ambulances rushed the wounded to nearby hospitals. Al-Jadiriya bridge, which links al-Karkh and al-Rasafa areas in Baghdad over the river Tigris, was built during the former regime's era and is considered one of the most important bridges in Iraq. The bombing occurred two days after the explosion that ripped through the al-Sarafiya bridge in central Baghdad, killing 10 people and wounding 26 others amidst speculations about whether the attack was caused by a truck bomb or explosive devices planted beneath the bridge. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had decided to set up a crisis management committee under his deputy Burham Saleh to follow up investigations into the bombing of al-Sarafiya bridge and the explosion inside the conference hall in Baghdad's green zone. A spokesman for the Iraqi government said Saleh has instructed the housing and reconstruction ministry to take immediate measures to rehabilitate the al-Sarafiya bridge, parts of which were destroyed in the bombing. AE/TP
Casualties/Iraqi | Insurgents Email This Post

IraqSlogger: Second Baghdad Bridge Bombed, Eight Killed

An international conference for reconstructing Iraq coinciding with a conference for neighboring States

An international conference for reconstructing Iraq coinciding with a conference for neighboring States Translated by IRAQdirectory.com - [13/04/2007]

Spokesman of the Iraqi government, Ali Al-Dabagh, said on Friday that a high-level meeting will be held at the beginning of May to launch a five-year international plan for reconstructing Iraq.

Al-Dabagh refrained from revealing the whereabouts of this meeting which is expected to be attended by many governmental and international agencies; however it coincides with the conference of the neighboring countries of Iraq, of which said the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari, on Thursday that it will be held in the first week of next month and also abstained to locate the place of the meeting.

On his part, the American Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Middle East Affairs, Scott Carpenter, said that the Ministerial Conference on Iraq may be held this month or early next month, but he did not disclose the location of the conference.

Carpenter believed that the plans are still under preparation for the conference, adding that the Ministerial Conference on Iraq would be a continuation of the international conference on security in Iraq which was held on the 10th of March, in Baghdad.

While the whereabouts of the conference is not revealed yet, the United States indicated that it supports holding it in Istanbul in Turkey, which was rejected by the Iraqi government.

The conference of Iraq’s coalition era will witness giving Iraq international, financially, politically and technically support in return for political, security and economic reforms.

http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=3617

Originally Posted by Hkp

Appologize if previously posted.

Analysis
Iraq Oil Law Turns Back the Clock to 1951
U.S. Supported Legislation Pressures Iraq to Transform Oil Industry
By SANDRA HERNANDEZ Posted 20 hr. 48 min. ago

The supplementary spending bill passed by Congress last month contained one of the most telling pieces of Iraq-related legislation since the U.S. invasion, and it wasn't the August 31, 2008, deadline for withdrawing U.S. troops. It was an obscure and little-understood bill called the Iraqi Hydrocarbons Law, and it could dramatically undermine the economic and political progress of Iraq.
The Hydrocarbons Law contains two fundamental provisions, the first governing how Iraq will distribute revenues from its 115 billion barrels of oil reserves--the second-largest after Saudi Arabia's. The second provision will allow regional governments to negotiate production contracts with foreign oil companies.
Should Iraq's parliament pass the oil law, it will effectively return the country's oil industry to the conditions of pre-1951 Iraq. Yet it is under extreme pressure to do just that.
The spending bill makes the oil law one of many "benchmarks" tying Iraqi political progress with continued American military support. That means that if Iraq's parliament fails to pass the Hydrocarbons bill, then the U.S. could in theory withdraw troops before the 2008 deadline. At the very least, it might cease to provide protection to Iraqi parliament members.
Iraq nationalized its oil industry in 1951, taking control of the country's oil reserves away from international oil companies (IOCs) and putting them in the hands of the Iraqi government, and later a state-owned Iraqi oil company. Henceforth, IOCs could only work as contractors for the state. Nationalization gave Iraq a bigger cut of its oil profits and greater control over all aspects of the oil industry, from drilling to exploration to refining. Today, this arrangement prevails in Arab oil producers like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
The Iraqi oil law undoes all of this.
Approved by the Iraqi council of ministers in March, the law permits regional governments to enter into contracts of up to 20 years for production, and up to 12 years for exploration in 65 sites around the country. That would leave Iraq’s National Oil Company in direct control of less than one-fifth of the country’s 80 oil fields.
The length of such contracts would allow foreign oil companies to sit on Iraq's oil for years until the security situation improves, delaying the revival of Iraq's devastated economy.
What is more, the law focuses on exploration and expansion of Iraq's industry--that is, new drilling--rather bringing existing oil fields back online. Iraq’s oil infrastructure has been crippled by acts of sabotage since the start of the war; what it needs most right now is investment to bring production technology up-to-date.
A New York Times editorial praised the oil law for “equitably distributing oil revenues,” while The Nation's Chris Parenti (sub.req.) noted lamely that a proposal for distributing revenue son a per-capita basis might help de-escalate sectarian conflict.
In fact, by devolving negotiating power to regional governments, the law promotes competition for foreign oil contracts, potentially exacerbating sectarian tensions. In effect, the law looks at oil as "a prize to be divided rather than a resource to support public investment and development", said Kamil Mahdi, an expert in Middle East economics at the University of Exeter, in remarks at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs this week.
One contract with the Kurdish Regional Government would give foreign companies a 40 percent cut of profits, said Mahdi. Clearly, it makes little sense to discuss equitable distribution of oil revenues within the country if such a large chunk will be going to non-Iraqis.
Government ministers and Iraqi oil unions, which represent tens of thousands of workers, have denounced the law, but it remains to be seen whether parliament will overcome enormous outside pressure to pass it.
The oil law has raised nary an eyebrow in Washington. One exception was Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), who called it “a concerted effort to ensure that American oil companies are granted access to Iraqi oil fields” and called on Congress to remove it from the spending bill’s list of performance benchmarks. Otherwise, lawmakers have hailed the oil law’s passage by Iraq’s Council of Ministers as a milestone for sectarian cooperation.
Besides opening Iraq’s doors to oil companies, the law might also benefit American interests by undermining Iraqi membership in OPEC. By putting so much of the oil sector under foreign control, the law would make it extremely difficult for Iraq to implement OPEC quotas. “It’s an anti-OPEC policy,” said Mahdi.
The future of Iraq’s oil is not a zero-sum game. Foreign oil companies have a constructive role to play in the sector, just as they do in neighboring Arab countries. But only a drastically revised law can make that possible.

IraqSlogger: Iraq Oil Law Turns Back the Clock to 1951

Iraq issued invitations for 15 Arab, Asian and American firms to drill 100 oil wells in the country's south as part of efforts to boost production, the oil ministry said earlier this month.

The OPEC member has the world's third-largest proven oil reserves and needs billions of dollars to revive its oil sector, which is crucial for rebuilding its shattered economy.

In February Iraq's cabinet endorsed a draft oil law regulating how wealth from the country's vast oil reserves will be shared by its ethnic and sectarian groups.

The oil law, which is awaiting parliament's ratification, has given the regions the right to negotiate with international firms on developing oilfields.

"It is achievable to pass the law within two months since all political parties are in favour," Shahristani said.

The law will also restructure the Iraq National Oil Company (INOC) as an independent holding firm and establish a Federal Council as a forum for national oil policy.

The world's top oil companies have been manoeuvring for years to win a stake in Iraq's prized oilfields such as Bin Umar, Majnoon, Nassiriyah, West Qurna and Ratawi, all located in the south of the country.

Iraq had intelligence of possible parliament attack

AGHDAD (Agencies)

http://www.bahraintribune.com/ArticleDetail.asp

Iraqi authorities had intelligence that militants were planning an attack on parliament before a suicide bombing at the building, a senior government source said yesterday.
The attack on Thursday, which the US military blamed on Al Qaeda, killed one lawmaker and wounded two dozen other people. Some visitors said security had been tightened at the building, with sniffer dogs used earlier in the day.
“We had prior intelligence that there would be an attack on the parliament,” the source said, without specifying when or how the information had been received.
He added that initial evidence showed a member of a Sunni lawmaker’s security team might have played a role in the attack, the most serious breach of the heavily fortified Green Zone that houses many government offices and embassies.
“It seems initial, initial evidence points to the possibility a member of a security detail of a Sunni member of parliament might have been involved. That is based on talks with survivors and some of the wounded,” the source said.
He said he was not aware of three employees from parliament’s restaurant being detained. A senior Shia lawmaker said earlier yesterday three workers in the cafe were being held for questioning.
“Certainly this investigation will also focus on the cafe, and how this breach happened in the cafeteria,” the source said.
Meanwhile, the second-ranking US general in Iraq said yesterday that the suicide attack on Baghdad’s parliament showed there remained a “long way to go” towards providing security in the war-ravaged country.
“It is clear that we still have a long way to go to provide security and stability to the people of Iraq,” said general Raymond Odierno in a video news conference from Baghdad.
Asked how a bomber could have penetrated the heavily protected Green Zone, Odierno said an investigation was underway.
“We simply don’t know yet who was involved. Something didn’t go right,” he said. “Somepeople didn’t do their job.”
The general insisted that “steady progress is being made” in Baghdad, where a massive security crackdown has been in place for two months with boosted US troops and joint checkpoints flooding the capital.
“But real success is based on sustaining progress over the long term with, eventually, Iraqis alone providing security to their people,” he said.

Tehran holds ex-FBI agent’ TEHRAN (Reuters)
A former FBI agent is being held by Iranian authorities, the Financial Times yesterday quoted an associate of the missing American as saying.
Diplomats fear the case of Robert Levinson could mark a new twist in the round of apparent tit-for-tat detentions involving the United States, Britain and Iran, which began with the detention by US forces in Iraq of five Iranians in January.
Washington has made an official inquiry to Iran about Levinson, who US officials say went there on private business.
Tehran says it is trying to find out what happened to him.
The Financial Times quoted Dawud Salahuddin – himself a US citizen wanted by US authorities for an alleged murder in 1980 – as saying he and Levinson had shared a hotel room on the Gulf island of Kish on March 8.
Iranian officials in plain clothes came to the room and detained and questioned Salahuddin about his Iranian passport, Salahuddin said. On his release a day later Levinson had disappeared, and the Iranian officials told Salahuddin he had left Iran.
“I don’t think he is missing, but don’t want to point my finger at anyone. Some people know exactly where he is,” Salahuddin told the newspaper. “He came only to see me.”
Salahuddin said he was worried about Levinson’s health but was confident “he is well taken care of” by Iranian authorities.
He said the purpose of his meeting with Levinson was to put him in touch with Iranian authorities to help his investigations into cigarette smuggling, as part of the former FBI agent’s work for a tobacco company, the FT reported.
Salahuddin, also known as David Belfield and Hassan Abdulrahman, is a US citizen who converted to Islam. He is wanted by Washington for the 1980 murder of a former Iranian diplomat and opponent of the Islamic revolution which overthrew the shah in 1979.

Iranian hostage says US Tehran embassy to be sold

NICOSIA (AFP)

An Iranian businessman awarded damages after what he called a US sting operation 15 years ago said yesterday the American embassy compound in Tehran has been effectively seized to pay his compensation.
In the first such lawsuit by an Iranian against Washington, Cyprus-based Hossein Alikhani was awarded $550 million by a Tehran court in 2003 for what he says was a 130-day ordeal after he was kidnapped by US agents.
He said the lengthy legal process resulted in the Tehran court blocking any sale or purchase of the embassy land because of its pending auction.
“The property has been blocked in my name as the court has decided to auction the property and hand over the proceeds to me,” Alikhani said. “The court will now appoint someone to evaluate the property and advertise the sale for auction, which should all happen by the end of next month.”
Despite Iran and the United States having no diplomatic relations, Washington says Tehran is duty-bound to respect and protect embassy premises.
A US State Department spokeswoman quoted by British newspaper The Times in its online edition yesterday said it had not been informed of the new development.
“We expect the government of Iran to ... ensure that the reported threatened sale of the mission premises does not take place,” she told the daily.
Alikhani said he expects to return to Iran in May for the auction.
“I have the documents and by the end of May it will be sold. People are interested in buying it because it’s prime property,” he said.
Alikhani expects to make as much as $200 million from the sale, much less than the $550 million awarded him by the Tehran court.
The site of the hostage crisis of 1979-1981, the embassy is now run by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards who use it for training and as a museum of US “crimes.”
The complex is a stark reminder of the antagonism that has underpinned US-Iran ties since militant students seized it after the 1979 Islamic revolution and held 52 American diplomats hostage for 444 days.
Alikhani, a 62-year-old father of three, said his own hostage ordeal left life-long scars.
He said it began in 1992 when undercover US customs agents lured him to the Bahamas after he was suspected of breaking US sanctions against Libya.
Alikhani said his abduction came after he faxed a Florida firm about gas generator spare parts he planned to ship to a state-owned oil field in Libya.
The company rejected the request, saying it violated US sanctions, and tipped off US customs.
For 30 days, Alikhani said, he was interrogated in Florida hotels while chained to beds. He then spent another 100 days in a US jail.
Awarding him the money, the Tehran court accused US agents of “kidnapping, false imprisonment, abuse and inflicting physical and psychological injuries.”

End the killings

http://www.bahraintribune.com/ArticleDetail.asp

A group of Iraqi Sunni Muslim scholars meeting in Jordan yesterday called for end of sectarian killings in their homeland. “I call upon our brothers the Shia scholars and politicians to advise those in the death squads against killing Sunnis,” Sheikh Abdul-Malik Al Saadi told the opening of a two-day annual conference of the state Sunni Religious Affairs Council, or Waqf. “By the same token, I also urge the other side (Sunnis) to stop the haphazard killing of the Shias,” he added. The Sunni Waqf was formed after the US-led war when the Religious Affairs Ministry was dissolved and replaced by three councils in the Prime Ministry. The others are the Shiite Waqf and the Waqf for other religions. The Waqf meeting, the fifth in four years, was held in neighboring Jordan because safety concerns. Al Saadi, who is a member of the Sunni Waqf, said “if the Sunnis fought the Shias, Iraq will never be completely for the Sunnis and the same applies for the Shias.” Sheikh Ahmed Abdul-Ghafoor Al Sameraie, head of the Sunni Waqf, called for national reconciliation in Iraq. He said all Iraqis must work to promote moderation and counter the militant takfiri ideology. But at least one of the scholars called for supporting the insurgency. Sheikh Mohammed Ayash Al Kubaissy told the conference that the “resistance accomplished its tasks. It should now move towards building political, military and legal institutions to build on what was achieved by the resistance.”

Throughout the meeting to the House tomorrow, Sunday
4 / 14 / 2007 10:17:15 PM

Announced by the Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament Mahmoud Almshahadani throughout the meeting today, Saturday, to tomorrow, Sunday, in the wake of the vote approving the amendment of the disbanded coalition authority No. 10 of 2004 on retirement.

The Council postponed the first reading of the law on the confiscation and seizure of movable and immovable pillars of the regime of former dictator because of the objection to the law of the Ba `ath party, which felt that it was the purview of the Committee on uprooting the Baath.

The Parliament Speaker Mahmoud Almshahadani deputies asked at the beginning of the meeting to unite to save Iraq.

The MP Bahaa Al-Araji, the United Iraqi Alliance list, responsible for the explosion on the presidency of the parliament, calling for the extradition of the security dossier to Parliament for lumps Alberlmaineh by size.

Al-Araji said during the meeting we hold the presidency of parliament responsible for the explosion that happened because we handed the security file. He added that the introduction of the restaurant in the parliament was one of the reasons for the breach, and said we do not have full confidence Baidkm surrender our souls. Al-Araji and continued demand the extradition of the security file, however, blocks Alberlmaineh resolving size.

For his part, the Almshahadani in response to accusations of Al-Araji responsibility of the presidency of the parliament on the bombing incident, saying that the Presidency of the Parliament is responsible for the bombing, and you also responsible for the breach of security you have helped, because I was every day receives complaints against members of Parliament refuse inspections and ignore them. He added no new security procedures will be followed and will be discussed in closed session. The entrances and the Conference Palace and the Parliament today, Saturday, strict security procedures differ from the previous one after the bombing incident.