Thread: Iraq/Dinar News until 5/23/07 Midnight CST

100 billion Iraqi Dinar earmarked for first stage in implementation of Article 140


Kurdistan TV





The Head of Kirkuk's office of the High Commission for Implementation of Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution, Abubakir Sidiq, has criticised a number of groups who are planning to delay the Kirkuk referendum.



Sidiq claimed that a number of extremist groups want to normalise the city but postpone the referendum. Other groups are totally opposed to Article 140 yet unable to propose an alternative method of the restoring the citizens of Kirkuk their rights.



In response to Zalmay Khalilzad's recent proposal of taking the issue of Kirkuk to the United Nations, Sidiq pointed out that Khalilzad's comments were made within the framework of the Baker-Hamilton report on Iraq.



According to Sidiq, over the last week, one hundred separate sub-committees of the High Commission for Implementation of Article 140 have been involved in distributing compensation. The compensation is awarded both to families who were originally resettled to Kirkuk and can now return to their hometowns, and also to families who were evicted from the city and are now being encouraged to return.



Sidiq stated that the technical problems in implementing Article 140 have now been resolved, adding that 100 billion Iraqi Dinar have been allocated to the first stage of the implementation process. He said that further funds included in the 2008 budget by Iraq’s Council of Ministers have yet to be approved

100 billion Iraqi Dinar earmarked for first stage in implementation of Article 140

Originally Posted by Hkp

Link Strategy Garden

IRAQ. Following consultation with senior officials from the Iraqi government, the Kurdistan Regional Government and the US Embassy Baghdad the organisers have said it is necessary to reschedule the Iraq Oil, Gas, Petrochemical & Electricity Summit for 2-4 September 2007. This has come about as a result of ongoing negotiations concerning Iraq’s proposed new hydrocarbon law.

JMHO.....This news posted above seems to me that the HCL can STILL be passed whether this Petro Summit is here next week or next month...

i thought that also but wasnt sure.

Originally Posted by Hkp

Link Strategy Garden

IRAQ. Following consultation with senior officials from the Iraqi government, the Kurdistan Regional Government and the US Embassy Baghdad the organisers have said it is necessary to reschedule the Iraq Oil, Gas, Petrochemical & Electricity Summit for 2-4 September 2007. This has come about as a result of ongoing negotiations concerning Iraq’s proposed new hydrocarbon law.

JMHO.....This news posted above seems to me that the HCL can STILL be passed whether this Petro Summit is here next week or next month...

well here's hoping that you are correct "Hkp" and we get our Reval sooner rather than later....Go Reval...!!

WTO | News - Events calendar

and todays bonus points go to the person who can tell me whats wrong with this calendar??

http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesP...08&Language=en

Iraqi expert explains situation over oil law

Politics 5/21/2007 8:06:00 PM



By Ronald Baygents WASHINGTON, May 21 (KUNA) -- An Iraqi expert who provided input on the proposed Iraqi hydrocarbon law was unwilling to speculate on how long it will take Iraq to approve that law during his United States Institute of Peace speech entitled "Iraq's Oil Law: How and When?" Yahia Said, who joined the Revenue Watch Institute this month as Middle East and North Africa regional director and senior adviser, said that since the oil law draft was announced last February, it has been met with mixed reactions, largely negative, and has become a battleground for various positions espoused by different Iraqi factions and interest groups.
The compromise draft is in a "very fragile" state, and "the noise surrounding it may sink the entire process," Said said.
Said said Iraqi government officials will try to introduce the proposed law into the Iraqi Parliament in the near future, but the Parliament "will not be rushed" as they discuss and amend the draft, Said said.
Told by KUNA that the top U.S. adviser to the U.S. State Department, David Satterfield, on Friday predicted that the Iraqi oil law would be approved by summer, Said declined to agree with that prediction. He also would not agree with another question as to whether the law would be approved by the end of this year.
Negotiations among Iraqi government officials on the oil law are "ongoing," Said said, and he noted that the law must go in as part of a four-law package that also includes reform of the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, establishment of an Iraq National Oil Company, and a revenue sharing law. The latter law is "extremely controversial" among Iraqis, Said said, and is "very far from being solved." The most significant disagreement on the revenue sharing law is coming from the Kurds, who do not want the Iraqi Ministry of Finance in charge of this, Said said. The Kurds want a "rigid formula" established with a cap on how much oil revenue can go to the Iraqi federal government, he said. However, he said, this violates the integrity of the Iraqi federal budgetary process, and makes it difficult for the government to react financially in a crisis.
This year Iraq has experienced significant delay in getting federal revenue allocations to Kurdistan, Said noted, and the Iraq Constitution has no recourse for minority groups.
The solution to some of these contradictions may lie in the Iraqi constitutional process, not the oil law or revenue sharing law, he suggested. The Iraqi Constitution originally called for two chambers, one federal and one regional. But that plan has been delayed and never resolved, so now the Iraqi Parliament is being asked to give up power to a second chamber. As a result of this situation, various institutional interests such as the office of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Oil, the Iraqi Election Commission and others have representatives in the Parliament, some of whom are "poisoning the legislative process," Said said.
While the preponderance of opinion in Iraq is that the oil law should be passed quickly, the Iraqi Parliament, which is committed to act on the issue, "will not be pushed around," Said said.
The oil law draft is based on one key compromise, Said noted -- that the management of the Iraqi oil industry will be separate from the management of the revenue of the Iraqi oil industry. How to divide power among the different regions of Iraq and private-sector interests needed to help develop the Iraqi oil industry has been a key issue, he noted, with the Iraqi government wanting more centralized powers while the draft proposal comes down strongly in favor of the regions.
While Article I of the draft law states that Iraqi oil belongs to the people of Iraq in all the provinces, which is in this respect a unifying factor, Said said this clause represents a big departure for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, which says this clause may be unconstitutional and is too vague on regional rights.
Annexes made to the draft law since February have proven particularly nettlesome, Said noted, with one of those allocating 95 percent of Iraqi oil reserve fields to the Iraq National Oil Company and only 5 percent to private industry. The KRG has not approved any of the annexes, Said said.
The 95-5 percent designation in one annex to the draft was made so that Iraq will retain control over investors and how Iraqi oil is contracted to private oil companies, Said said. While the draft law has been "polarizing," the differences among Iraqis on the issue are not that deep, and are more "qualitative than quantitative," he said.
The draft law "is good on transparency," he said, and may be the strongest in the region in terms of specifics on contracts, commercial rights, revenue figures, taxes and royalties.
Asked by KUNA to explain how the law would distribute oil revenues based on population, Said said the Iraqi Constitution states that revenue from the oil law should be distributed on a per capita basis through a formula based on regional populations, and it also requires that Iraqis who "suffered in the past" (under the regime of Saddam Hussein) should receive more for a limited time. "But there are different interpretations to this," Said said, with some suggesting that per capita spending on defense among Iraqis should be a factor, instead of permitting per capital oil revenues to be distributed neutrally.
One of the biggest myths surrounding the oil law draft is that it gives free access to multinational companies, Said said.
"The text of the law does not support that in any way," he said, and in fact the law may not contain provisions that are lucrative enough to attract the kind of outside private-sector investment needed in the Iraqi oil sector.
The oil law draft was written by career Iraqi oil managers with "unassailable national credentials," Said said.
Once the law is in place, it will signal to all Iraqis the shape of the federation of the country, so the oil law does have "a big political element," Said said.
Last year, Said worked with the United Nations Development Program, leading the process to develop the International Compact with Iraq, a comprehensive medium-term framework for reform and reconstruction of Iraq in the socio-economic, political and security areas. In this capacity, Said worked directly with the Deputy Secretary General of the UN, the Special Representative of the Secretary General to Iraq, the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, ministers of Finance, Planning, Oil, leaders of Parliament and civil society.
For the past seven years, Said has been a research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Global Governance at the London School of Economics. (end) rm.bz.
KUNA 212006 May 07NNNN

Notice: Continuation of the National Emergency Protecting the Development Fund for Iraq and Certain Other Property in Which Iraq Has An Interest

Notice: Continuation of the National Emergency Protecting the Development Fund for Iraq and Certain Other Property in Which Iraq Has An Interest



White House News


On May 22, 2003, by Executive Order 13303, I declared a national emergency protecting the Development Fund for Iraq and certain other property in which Iraq has an interest, pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701-1706) (IEEPA). I took this action to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the obstacles to the orderly reconstruction of Iraq, the restoration and maintenance of peace and security in the country, and the development of political, administrative, and economic institutions in Iraq constituted by the threat of attachment or other judicial process against the Development Fund for Iraq, Iraqi petroleum and petroleum products, and interests therein, and proceeds, obligations, or any financial instruments of any nature whatsoever arising from or related to the sale or marketing thereof, and interests therein.

In Executive Order 13315, of August 28, 2003, Executive Order 13350 of July 29, 2004, and Executive Order 13364 of November 29, 2004, I modified the scope of the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13303 and amended the steps taken pursuant to it.

Because the obstacles to the orderly reconstruction of Iraq, the restoration and maintenance of peace and security in the country, and the development of political, administrative, and economic institutions in Iraq continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States, the national emergency declared on May 22, 2003, and the measures adopted on that date, August 28, 2003, July 29, 2004, and November 29, 2004, to deal with that emergency must continue in effect beyond May 22, 2007. Therefore, in accordance with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency protecting the Development Fund for Iraq and certain other property in which Iraq has an interest.

This notice shall be published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress.

GEORGE W. BUSH

THE WHITE HOUSE,

May 18, 2007.

Iraqi oil exports up 10 percent over past year
AFP

May 21, 2007


BAGHDAD -- Iraqi oil exports have increased 10 percent over the last 12 months despite hundreds of acts of sabotage that killed nearly 200 ministry employees, oil minister Hussein Shahristani said Monday.

Between May 2006 and the end of April 2007 the ministry exported 560 million barrels of oil, earning about $31 billion, up from 505 million barrels worth $25.6 billion during the previous 12 months.

"We are still exporting from Basra port about 1.6 million barrels a day and this means production is at the highest levels," Shahristani said at a press conference.

"Because of the sabotage and terror acts, the oil pipelines are constantly being attacked. Therefore, we cannot maintain production through the northern pipeline into [Turkey's] Ceyhan port," he said.

If the northern pipe was open, daily exports would rise to 2 million barrels, he added.

But the spiraling chaos in the country continues to paralyze its most crucial industry. In the last 12 months, 198 ministry employees were killed in over 200 attacks on Iraq's oil infrastructure.

Shahristani ascribed the current fuel shortages in Baghdad to attacks on the bridges south of the city that have made it difficult to transport fuel there.

Despite immense reserves, which a recent report suggests are actually twice as large as current estimates of 116 billion barrels, persistent sabotage and corruption have prevented the sector from realizing its potential.

Between $5 million and $15 million worth of oil a day is unaccounted for in Iraq and could have been siphoned off through corruption or smuggling, The New York Times reported earlier this month.

Citing a draft of a US government report, the newspaper said the country has lost between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of its declared oil production over the past four years.

The Financial Times cited a report Thursday by the IHS consultancy estimating Iraq's oil reserves to be twice as large as currently believed.

The report also said that with more international investment Iraq could double its current rate of production in five years to 4 million barrels of oil a day.

If the report is accurate, Iraq would have the second-largest reserves in the world after Saudi Arabia.

Iraqi oil exports up 10 percent over past year - Business - Middle East Times

Originally Posted by shotgunsusie

WTO | News - Events calendar

and todays bonus points go to the person who can tell me whats wrong with this calendar??

YEA!

No 25 May 2007 Meeting to sign a letter of intent....So, they really blew it now...They will never be given such a free ride ever again!

Originally Posted by fredgwest1999

YEA!

No 25 May 2007 Meeting to sign a letter of intent....So, they really blew it now...They will never be given such a free ride ever again!

What does this mean?? Are they going to sign a letter of intent on the 25th? Have they already signed it?? And "Letter of Intent"--to do what? I just don't want to jump to any conclusions here--can someone fill me in??

Thanks!! OrdinarySeaWoman

Originally Posted by shotgunsusie

WTO | News - Events calendar

and todays bonus points go to the person who can tell me whats wrong with this calendar??

Hmm, I'm gonna have to guess here, but it looks like there aren't any events related to Iraq listed on the schedule....

Thought this was an interesting event coming up next month though.....

12-13 June The Marshall Plan: Lessons Learned Applicable to the 21st Century, 60th anniversary symposium celebration
Paris

And congrats to your niece Susie. As an engineer myself I can relate to the difficulty of her struggle. She must be one smart cookie. By the way which branch of Engineering did she graduate from? Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical, Civil????