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

BP eyes role in Iraq, awaits oil law, security
Mon Apr 16, 2007 10:16 AM BST

DUBAI, April 16 (Reuters) - Energy giant BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile , Research) is interested in working on a range of oil and gas projects in Iraq, but is waiting for the country's parliament to pass an oil law and for security to improve before increasing its role, a senior BP executive said on Monday.

International companies have been jostling for position as they look for a potentially lucrative stake in Iraq's oil future. The country holds the world's third largest oil reserves and needs billions of dollars of investment to boost output and overhaul ageing infrastructure.

"Eventually where we get involved will be up to Iraq," Steve Peacock, president of BP's Middle East and South Asia Exploration and Production unit, told reporters at an energy conference in Dubai.

"But I think we can help in all areas: enhanced oil recovery from existing fields, in discovered and not developed fields, or in exploration."

A draft oil law that Iraq's cabinet endorsed in February is awaiting parliament's ratification.

Peacock said it would take some time after the law is passed for contracts to be negotiated and for BP to send people to work in Iraq because of the security situation in the country.

"Physical security on the ground... may be the thing that takes the longest," he said.

BP would also wait for assurance that any contracts would survive changes in government, he said.

BP has been providing assistance to Iraq's oil company in the south around the Rumaila field, he said. The North and South Rumaila fields are already partially developed and have combined potential output capacity of 500,000 barrels per day.

BP would not look at involvement in Iraq's Kurdish region in the north until the oil law had been passed, even though security in the region is better than elsewhere in the country, he said.

The United Arab Emirates' Dana Gas said on Sunday it had signed agreements with the Kurdish regional government to study development of its gas reserves.

http://investing.reuters.co.uk/news...BP-IRAQ-OIL.XML

16 times very 16:43:00 2007

ترحيب

Welcome

المالكي يرحب باعلان الصدر تفويضه باختيار الوزراء

Maliki welcomed the announcement of the selection of Sadr delegated Minister

Baghdad / Nina / welcomed Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, welcomed Mr. Moqtada Sadr delegated the task of assigning portfolios interministerial six which had been occupied ministers in the government bloc chest Hello...


Did he think that Maliki will cry - by any chance??

Another one:

Voices of Iraq: Maliki-Sadrists Posted by: nakr2004 on Monday, April 16, 2007 - 03:59 PM
Maliki-Sadrists
Maliki welcomes Sadr's decision to authorize him to appoint successors
By Watheq Ismail
Baghdad, Apr 16, (VOI) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has welcomed Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr's decision to authorize the prime minister to select independent persons to replace the six Shiite ministers who quit the government earlier in the day.
The Sadr Movement’s ministers in the incumbent Iraqi government were withdrawn upon orders from Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, in protest against the government's failure to set a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq, the movement chief in Iraq's parliament Nassar al-Rubaie, had said earlier.

Reading out a statement by Sadr at the Iraqi Parliament on Monday, Rubaie said "for the sake of public interest and easing burdens from the Iraqi people, we deemed it necessary to inform Sadrist ministers to quit the Iraqi government and steer clear of any sectarian, ethnic, partisan or political calculations."

Sadr, in his statement, called on the six ministers to "continue serving the people" from outside the government, adding "I pray for God Almighty to bestow on the Iraqi people a government that is independent from occupation and one that works hard in the service of its people."

The Sadrist ministers' withdrawal from the government is expected to double pressures on Prime Minister Maliki as the Sadr Movement is considered a powerful supporter of him since he came to power in mid-2006.

The Sadrist ministers held important portfolios in the Iraqi government: health, agriculture, transport, tourism and antiquities, provinces' affairs and civil society.

Rubaie, during a press conference he held earlier on Monday in Baghdad, said the ministers quit the government due to Maliki's failure to positively respond to the "million-man demonstration," which was staged by Sadrists on April 9 in the holy Shiite province of Najaf, to demand the departure of occupation troops.

The Sadrists occupy 30 seats within the Shiite Unified Iraqi Coalition (UIC), which has the largest number of seats in the Iraqi parliament, 130 out of the total 275 seats.

Sadrist Press Conference Makes It Official
Six Ministers, 30 Seats Leave Maliki's Shiite Coalition
Posted 0 hr. 10 min. ago
Pool/Getty
BAGHDAD - APRIL 16: Nassar Al-Rubai (C), a spokesman for the al-Sadr parliamentary bloc, addresses the media during press conference April 16, 2007 in Baghdad, Iraq.



"For the sake of public interest and easing burdens from the Iraqi people, we deemed it necessary to inform Sadrist ministers to quit the Iraqi government and steer clear of any sectarian, ethnic, partisan or political calculations," Nassar al-Rubaie, head of the Sadrist bloc, said, reading out a statement by Moqtada al-Sadr at the Iraqi Parliament on Monday.
The statement further called on the six ministers to "continue serving the people" from outside the government, adding "I pray for God Almighty to bestow on the Iraqi people a government that is independent from occupation and one that works hard in the service of its people."
The Sadrists accuse Maliki of "ignoring the will of the people" by not setting a timetable for withdrawal of US forces and also for failing to improve basic services and security.
"The prime minister has to express the will of the Iraqi people. They went out in a demonstration in their millions asking for a timetable for withdrawal," Rubaie, told a news conference.
Maliki's office responded to the Sadrists' announcement with a bit of snark: "The prime minister welcomes Moqtada al-Sadr's announcement to give him the responsibility of handing the six ministries ... to qualified people and not based on their sectarian affiliation," Maliki's office said in a statement, also reiterating that US forces would leave only when Iraqis were capable of handling security.
In Washington, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the departure of Sadr's ministers would not bring down Maliki's government.
"If the Sadrists were to leave the government -- obviously they've said they would before and I understand that they have done that this morning -- that does not mean that Maliki loses his majority," she said.
The Sadrists headed important ministries--health, agriculture, transport, tourism and antiquities, provinces' affairs and civil society--and occupied 30 of the Shiite Unified Iraqi Coalition's (UIC) 130 seats, out of the total 275 seats in Iraqi Parliament.



IraqSlogger: Sadrist Press Conference Makes It Official

Voices of Iraq: Iraq-Currency Posted by: nakr2004 on Monday, April 16, 2007 - 01:41 PM
Iraq-Currency
Demand for dollar down in Iraqi daily auction
By Dergham Mohamed Ali
Baghdad, Apr 16, (VOI) – Demand for the dollar was down in the Iraqi Central Bank’s daily auction on Monday, reaching $68.670 million compared with $80.675 million on Sunday.
In its daily statement the bank said it had covered all bids, which included $13.230 million in cash and $55.440 million in foreign transfers, at an exchange rate of 1,272 dinars per dollar, unchanged from last week.
None of the 17 banks that participated in Monday's auction offered to sell dollars.
Abdul-Razzaq al-Abaiji, an economist, told VOI "the stable exchange rate decline has led to stability in the local market after it restored confidence in the hard currency following the previous consecutive decline in the rate in early April. This, thus, has brought relative stability to demand for the dollar in the auction
The Iraqi Central Bank runs a daily auction from Sunday to Thursday.

Iraq-Currency :: Aswat al Iraq :: Aswat al Iraq

Correct me if I am wrong, but the CBI seems to have leveled the rate for now. We were seeing about 1 pip per day change. Could someone please explain any reason for this, if there is one (besides the hold to a certain level for a reval). If there is any other reason?

Thanks for eveyones posts, I appreciate it.

JD

Originally Posted by draft138

Correct me if I am wrong, but the CBI seems to have leveled the rate for now. We were seeing about 1 pip per day change. Could someone please explain any reason for this, if there is one (besides the hold to a certain level for a reval). If there is any other reason?

Thanks for eveyones posts, I appreciate it.

JD

The CBI are waiting on something to trigger the reval. I would take an educated guess that it is the HCL, and once passed we will have our reval. By dropping 1s and 2s per day as they have done up to the last 12 days they are trying to lower inflation.

The HCL holds the key to our dreams.

When is the HCL meeting?

Originally Posted by draft138

Correct me if I am wrong, but the CBI seems to have leveled the rate for now. We were seeing about 1 pip per day change. Could someone please explain any reason for this, if there is one (besides the hold to a certain level for a reval). If there is any other reason?

Thanks for eveyones posts, I appreciate it.

JD

The FIL implementation IMO. If it was only the HCL, the ISX would be open to foreigners by now.

But as we have heard a while ago, there may be " a package", and if it is, FIL & HCL could be together in it, and then Adster would be right.

adster,

i know nobody knows for sure but when was the expected time of the implementation of the hcl law?do you think they will implement it at the ici in the begining of may? thanks

Originally Posted by draft138

Correct me if I am wrong, but the CBI seems to have leveled the rate for now. We were seeing about 1 pip per day change. Could someone please explain any reason for this, if there is one (besides the hold to a certain level for a reval). If there is any other reason?

Thanks for eveyones posts, I appreciate it.

JD

Interesting,

As we have seen, even with more dinar being removed, the rate of dinar has leveled off, natural resistance, as in, this is as much as they can go with strategy in place for the past several months. In my opinion, this shows us that stability is indeed in place since there has been no reversal or drop in dinar value, so now we are all set for restoration. All that we have seen to date is a technical economic dog and poney show by CBI to establish and demonstrate stability. You cannot have a restoration of dinar rate without stability being clearly proven, and it has, so any day now is how I see it unfolding.

Good luck and health to all, Mike