Thread: Iraq/Dinar News Until 5/31/2007 7:15 PM CST..

Iraq oil law won’t allow foreign reins – minister
Published: Saturday, 26 May, 2007, 08:33 AM Doha Time

DUBAI: Iraq’s pending new oil law does not mention production-sharing contracts and will guarantee that 80% of oil reserves are managed by the Iraqi National Oil Company, the oil minister said in remarks published yesterday.

“There is no mention of production-sharing contracts,” Hussain al-Shahristani told the pan-Arab daily, Al Hayat.

The state-owned Iraqi National Oil Company would control all fields other than those that are not now in production and which are a long way from production, he added.

“This means that 80% of discovered Iraqi reserves will be set aside for the Iraqi National (Oil) Company, and this invalidates the claim that the law will pave the way for foreign companies to control Iraqi oil,” he said.
Arrangements for developing the other oilfields will depend on a Federal Oil and Gas Council, he said.

International companies are eyeing Iraq’s giant and largely underdeveloped oilfields. Iraq needs billions of dollars in foreign investment to boost oil output and rebuild its economy.

Shahristani was yesterday quoted in India as saying that the new law should be approved in two months, which pushes back the timetable for passing the key legislation from a hoped-for end of May

The legislation is crucial to regulating how wealth from Iraq’s oil reserves will be shared between its sectarian and ethnic groups.

Shahristani was in India to drum up investment interest in Iraq’s oil sector, but oil firms are waiting for the oil law to pass before deciding on putting their money into the country.

He said that Iraq’s current production capacity ranges between 2.8 and 2.9 barrels a day (bpd). “It is possible to boost this capacity as it is planned to 3 barrels each day.”

He also said that Iraq is trying to add more units to Iraqi refineries to raise their capacity from 700,000 to 750,000 bpd to meet the increasing demand for derivatives.

The energy sector is struggling to recover from years of mismanagement, sanctions and attacks against infrastructure by insurgents.
Iraq has eight oil refineries, none of which was damaged during the US-led invasion in 2003.

Iraq will auction 15 onshore oil and gas assets once the oil law is passed, oil ministry director general Fayadh Hassan Nima had said on Wednesday. - Reuters

Gulf Times – Qatar’s top-selling English daily newspaper - Finance & Business

IRAQ OIL LAW TALKS ONGOING, NO PROGRESS
Published: May 25, 2007 at 6:19 PM E-mail Story | Print Preview | License

WASHINGTON, May 25 (UPI) -- Iraqi negotiators, under pressure to move fast and facing a deadline they likely won't meet, haven't agreed on a law governing oil and natural gas reserves.

"Nothing to report yet, no progress, we are still in Baghdad," Ashti Hawrami, energy minister for the Kurdistan Regional Government, wrote in an e-mail to United Press International Friday, "and have lined up more meetings to see if the remaining issue can be resolved."

The KRG is pressing for greater control over the oil resources in its northern region, opening up the country's vast reserves to the free market and ensuring the revenue from oil sales is distributed with an even and apolitical hand.

Sunnis and most Shiites want a strong central planning and control over the third-largest oil sector in the world, via a reconstituted Iraq National Oil Co.
The unions are threatening to strike if, among other demands, foreign companies are given access to and ownership of the oil.

Meanwhile the needed investment in the struggling sector -- from both domestic and foreign coffers -- is waiting for the law to be passed, as well as security to improve. Iraq produces about 2 million barrels per day, far less than before the war. Its estimated 115 billion barrels of reserves can handle much more than that, but its infrastructure can't. Iraq exports about 1.6 million bpd, the revenue from which supports more than 93 percent of the federal budget.

The U.S. government -- both President Bush and the Congress -- are urging Iraqi leaders pass the law, though Iraqis say the U.S. pressure is making matters worse. Campaigners and some members of Congress say the pressure is pushing the law toward a big boon for the international oil industry.
Iraq oil experts warn the law should be put on hold until constitutional issues are addressed first and the violence subsides.

A summit scheduled for next week in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, aimed at bringing investors and Iraq's leaders together, was postponed this week, further evidence a self-imposed end of May deadline to pass a law will be missed.

United Press International - Energy - Briefing

Iraq to Pass New Law on Oil
May 26 2007

Iraq's new oil law should be passed in the next two months, the country's oil minister said on Friday, pushing back the timetable for passing the key legislation from a hoped-for end-May.

Hussain al-Shahristani is in India to drum up investment interest in Iraq's oil sector, but oil firms are waiting for the oil law to pass before deciding on putting their money into the country.

The legislation is crucial to regulating how wealth from Iraq's oil reserves would be shared by its sectarian and ethnic groups. -Neftegaz.ru

Iraq to Pass New Law on Oil | Huliq: Breaking News

Iraq oil law in limbo as deadline looms
May 25 2007

Oil law is key U.S. benchmark for Iraq progress
By Sharon Behn
The Washington Times

WASHINGTON -- Iraq's proposed oil law, a key U.S. benchmark for political progress, remains in sharp dispute one week before the government's self-imposed deadline for passage, and some say it could create more divisions in the fractured country.

"In general, it is a step forward for the Iraqi political process," said Yahia Said, a London-based analyst with the Revenue Watch Institute who has been closely involved in talks on the draft law.

But Mr. Said and others caution that even if the measure is enacted this summer, Iraq lacks the institutional capability to implement it.

"The design of the law is one thing and implementation is another. There are constraints of capacity," he said in a telephone interview from London.

"A lot more will depend on implementation and the structures established to implement the law. This is one of the weakest elements," he said.

The law, running 33 pages in its third and current draft, lays out terms for the control and management of Iraq's oil fields, with the goal of boosting production and revenues for the benefit of all Iraqis.

The Bush administration has pressed hard for passage in the hope that sectarian tensions fueling the violence in Iraq can be eased by ensuring that Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds will benefit fairly from the oil wealth.

But with negotiators rapidly approaching a deadline on Thursday, the factions remain deeply divided on the sharing of revenues, the extent of the role of international companies in the development of fields and the scope of a national oil company.

All the parties agree that Iraq needs outside capital and expertise to develop the potential of its oil fields.

Kate Dourian, a Dubai-based analyst for the oil industry publication Platt's, said the draft law appears to be deliberately vague about the terms that will be offered to foreign companies.

"At the end of the day, unless you have security and stability, it really doesn't matter -- people are not going to come in," she said in a telephone interview from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Oil executives, who refused to talk on the record given the sensitivity of the talks in Baghdad, said the negotiations are more about the political future of Iraq than oil.

Kurds push for pro-investment law

Although Iraqi leaders are under an armistice on the law's central provisions for production and exploration, a feud has broken out over three appendixes that control revenue-sharing and the creation of a strong national oil company.

The Kurds, whose autonomous region in the north contains large oil fields, are pushing for a more pro-investment law that would encourage production-sharing agreements, a revenue-sharing plan that would benefit oil-rich regions and greater regional control over reserves.

They also are worried that the plan to allow a future Iraqi National Oil Co. (INOC) to control 93 percent of Iraq's oil reserves would create a "state within a state."

"We are concerned, as the Kurdistan Regional Government, about an overly powerful national oil company, especially given the fact that we don't have in place the necessary checks and balances," said Qubad Talabany, the Kurdistan Regional Government's Washington representative.

"We have to be diligent on this and understand that oil, if managed well, could be a unifier. But if not managed well, it could further polarize the country," he said.

The Shi'ites, who hold the majority in the south where Iraq's other large oil fields are located and currently control the government, want a more restrictive investment law and greater centralized authority over reserves and revenue.

According to Platt's, Iraqi oil production is lolling at just over 2 million barrels per day, well below the 2.8 million barrels per day produced in Iraq in the months before the war began in March 2003.

Greater regional control over reserves and revenues could provide the basis for a de-facto partitioning of the country, said one former official in the Iraqi Oil Ministry.

"The ones who will benefit are the local mafiosi and the separatist political leaders, whether they are the leaders of the Shi'ite religious parties or the Kurdistan separatist parties," said Falleh al-Hayat, director general of planning at the Ministry of Oil in 2004.

Even if the oil issue is settled, warned one Iraqi engineer who advises international companies looking to invest in Iraq, squabbles over the supply of electricity and water to the oil industry are inevitable.

Iraq oil law in limbo as deadline looms

Originally Posted by Lunar

Iraq oil law won’t allow foreign reins – minister
Published: Saturday, 26 May, 2007, 08:33 AM Doha Time

DUBAI: Iraq’s pending new oil law does not mention production-sharing contracts and will guarantee that 80% of oil reserves are managed by the Iraqi National Oil Company, the oil minister said in remarks published yesterday.

“There is no mention of production-sharing contracts,” Hussain al-Shahristani told the pan-Arab daily, Al Hayat.

The state-owned Iraqi National Oil Company would control all fields other than those that are not now in production and which are a long way from production, he added.

“This means that 80% of discovered Iraqi reserves will be set aside for the Iraqi National (Oil) Company, and this invalidates the claim that the law will pave the way for foreign companies to control Iraqi oil,” he said.
Arrangements for developing the other oilfields will depend on a Federal Oil and Gas Council, he said.

International companies are eyeing Iraq’s giant and largely underdeveloped oilfields. Iraq needs billions of dollars in foreign investment to boost oil output and rebuild its economy.

Shahristani was yesterday quoted in India as saying that the new law should be approved in two months, which pushes back the timetable for passing the key legislation from a hoped-for end of May

The legislation is crucial to regulating how wealth from Iraq’s oil reserves will be shared between its sectarian and ethnic groups.

Shahristani was in India to drum up investment interest in Iraq’s oil sector, but oil firms are waiting for the oil law to pass before deciding on putting their money into the country.

He said that Iraq’s current production capacity ranges between 2.8 and 2.9 barrels a day (bpd). “It is possible to boost this capacity as it is planned to 3 barrels each day.”

He also said that Iraq is trying to add more units to Iraqi refineries to raise their capacity from 700,000 to 750,000 bpd to meet the increasing demand for derivatives.

The energy sector is struggling to recover from years of mismanagement, sanctions and attacks against infrastructure by insurgents.
Iraq has eight oil refineries, none of which was damaged during the US-led invasion in 2003.

Iraq will auction 15 onshore oil and gas assets once the oil law is passed, oil ministry director general Fayadh Hassan Nima had said on Wednesday. - Reuters

Gulf Times – Qatar’s top-selling English daily newspaper - Finance & Business

they told us firms were reluctant until they passed the law BEFORE he went to india to drum up sales so what is it he went for?? so that they could tell him no again?

Originally Posted by Lunar

Iraq oil law in limbo as deadline looms
May 25 2007

Oil law is key U.S. benchmark for Iraq progress
By Sharon Behn
The Washington Times

WASHINGTON -- Iraq's proposed oil law, a key U.S. benchmark for political progress, remains in sharp dispute one week before the government's self-imposed deadline for passage, and some say it could create more divisions in the fractured country.

"In general, it is a step forward for the Iraqi political process," said Yahia Said, a London-based analyst with the Revenue Watch Institute who has been closely involved in talks on the draft law.

But Mr. Said and others caution that even if the measure is enacted this summer, Iraq lacks the institutional capability to implement it.

"The design of the law is one thing and implementation is another. There are constraints of capacity," he said in a telephone interview from London.

"A lot more will depend on implementation and the structures established to implement the law. This is one of the weakest elements," he said.

The law, running 33 pages in its third and current draft, lays out terms for the control and management of Iraq's oil fields, with the goal of boosting production and revenues for the benefit of all Iraqis.

The Bush administration has pressed hard for passage in the hope that sectarian tensions fueling the violence in Iraq can be eased by ensuring that Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds will benefit fairly from the oil wealth.

But with negotiators rapidly approaching a deadline on Thursday, the factions remain deeply divided on the sharing of revenues, the extent of the role of international companies in the development of fields and the scope of a national oil company.

All the parties agree that Iraq needs outside capital and expertise to develop the potential of its oil fields.

Kate Dourian, a Dubai-based analyst for the oil industry publication Platt's, said the draft law appears to be deliberately vague about the terms that will be offered to foreign companies.

"At the end of the day, unless you have security and stability, it really doesn't matter -- people are not going to come in," she said in a telephone interview from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Oil executives, who refused to talk on the record given the sensitivity of the talks in Baghdad, said the negotiations are more about the political future of Iraq than oil.

Kurds push for pro-investment law

Although Iraqi leaders are under an armistice on the law's central provisions for production and exploration, a feud has broken out over three appendixes that control revenue-sharing and the creation of a strong national oil company.

The Kurds, whose autonomous region in the north contains large oil fields, are pushing for a more pro-investment law that would encourage production-sharing agreements, a revenue-sharing plan that would benefit oil-rich regions and greater regional control over reserves.

They also are worried that the plan to allow a future Iraqi National Oil Co. (INOC) to control 93 percent of Iraq's oil reserves would create a "state within a state."

"We are concerned, as the Kurdistan Regional Government, about an overly powerful national oil company, especially given the fact that we don't have in place the necessary checks and balances," said Qubad Talabany, the Kurdistan Regional Government's Washington representative.

"We have to be diligent on this and understand that oil, if managed well, could be a unifier. But if not managed well, it could further polarize the country," he said.

The Shi'ites, who hold the majority in the south where Iraq's other large oil fields are located and currently control the government, want a more restrictive investment law and greater centralized authority over reserves and revenue.

According to Platt's, Iraqi oil production is lolling at just over 2 million barrels per day, well below the 2.8 million barrels per day produced in Iraq in the months before the war began in March 2003.

Greater regional control over reserves and revenues could provide the basis for a de-facto partitioning of the country, said one former official in the Iraqi Oil Ministry.

"The ones who will benefit are the local mafiosi and the separatist political leaders, whether they are the leaders of the Shi'ite religious parties or the Kurdistan separatist parties," said Falleh al-Hayat, director general of planning at the Ministry of Oil in 2004.

Even if the oil issue is settled, warned one Iraqi engineer who advises international companies looking to invest in Iraq, squabbles over the supply of electricity and water to the oil industry are inevitable.

Iraq oil law in limbo as deadline looms

but this is what the other article said they had came to an agreement on. so which is it??

their mirrors are gettin cloudy with smoke again.

Originally Posted by shotgunsusie

but this is what the other article said they had came to an agreement on. so which is it??

their mirrors are gettin cloudy with smoke again.

Time for a break.....you're starting to believe these articles.

Question: why would GOI transport large amount of funds via Military to their Main Bank hub. Daily auctions go and business is conducted without military involvement. What was special about this specific time? Just trying to drum up some ideas on this tpoic the obvious would be lower denominations right?

Local news : Najirfan Barzani discuss security and political developments and economic .. A positive atmosphere prevailed discussions prime minister of the Kurdistan with officials in Baghdad
26.05.07

A positive atmosphere prevailed in the discussions between Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and head of government Najirfan Barzani's Kurdistan province on a number of issues concerning the political and security situation, including the issue of the constitution and the distribution of oil imports and other financial matters and article 140 of the Constitution, as well as the pattern of the relationship between the federal government and the government of Kurdistan.

Following the completion of the meeting, the two sides held a joint press conference, GOI Barzani support the territorial government to the central government.

The head of the territorial government in Baghdad earlier to complete the discussion of issues has been described as positive.

The committee re-drafting of the Iraqi Constitution has been referred questions law distribution of wealth and the powers of provinces and Article 140 of the Constitution, to normalize the situation in Kirkuk and other areas in Iraq disputed, the heads and leaders of political blocs and entities in order to reach a final solution in this regard.

It was Barzani had discussed these issues earlier with the vice president, Adel Abdul Mahdi, said after the meeting : that the visit comes within the framework of research with the Baghdad government on the distribution of imports and territorial guard forces, in this regard, pointing out that there is a common understanding that the meetings will continue until a solution. For his part, Vice President of the Republic has been found on the achievements of the Kurdistan region at various levels, pointing to the cooperation between the two sides, and said : "We agreed on the principles and mechanisms to look good execution.

In relation to the national security adviser Muwaffaq al-Rubay'i that membership of the Commission formed a number of ministers to determine the future of the Peshmargas in Kurdistan.

Following his meeting with Barzani in Baghdad to discuss a series of issues of common relationship : a meeting with a group of security ministers and the Prime Minister of Kurdistan, the main theme discussed at this meeting, is to transform s forces troops to guard the territory, and there was a group of titles and raised fundamental questions including : what is the size of the territory, and what functions? What is the function of these forces? As well as the size and the number and type of iron? Will the part of the army or police, or whether they are between the two. At the same The spokesman leadership Bischmaraka Kurdistan Jabbar aide-de-camp in a press statement that the delegation held a lengthy meeting was devoted to discuss the details of the expenses Troops Territory (Bischmaraka Kurdistan), was attended by a high-level delegation from the central government, headed by Dr. Muwaffaq Al-Rubaie, national security adviser delegation from the multinational force and two delegations from the British and American Embassies in Baghdad.

Within the territory Christan delegation meetings, discuss Deputy Prime Minister Zubai peace with the government of President Barzani of the Kurdistan Najirfan number of issues of local, regional and international levels as well as the political process and the plan to impose law and the ways to increase the effectiveness of the security forces and injecting new elements of the Army forces deployed in the northern areas.

Barzani also discussed with the Iraqi Communist Party secretary, Hamid Majid Moussa, in another meeting for the current situation in Iraq, particularly on the security front, in addition to considering the results of talks between the central government and the government of Kurdistan region on issues related to the province, where the two sides stressed the need to find appropriate solutions that satisfy all parties, Turning to the question of the two sides constitutional amendments approved mechanism contained in the Constitution itself in this regard.

The Najirfan Barzani had earlier met former Prime Minister and member of the United Iraqi Alliance list Ibrahim al-Jaafari, where the two sides discussed the latest developments on the Iraqi political scene, the region and the ongoing talks in Baghdad between the central government and the government of Kurdistan.

On the other hand, the President reviewed government in Kurdistan with Finance Minister Baqer Jabr Al-Zubaydi reality services in the province and major projects being implemented in the area of housing, reconstruction and development of universities, water projects and other service projects that contribute to achieving prosperity. For his part, Al-Zubaidi that the Ministry of Finance began to follow up the implementation of the budget disbursement for each governorates of Iraq, including the province's budget, which would contribute significantly to the evolution of the reality of services called for a strengthening of resources through the activation of customs and tax departments in the province, attended the meeting, Minister of Planning Dr Baban and Oil Minister d. Hussein Shahrastani, Minister of Finance of the Territory Sarkis Aga Jan, and a number of advisers and Minister of Finance and officials of the Kurdistan province.

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Originally Posted by cashNsoon

Question: why would GOI transport large amount of funds via Military to their Main Bank hub. Daily auctions go and business is conducted without military involvement. What was special about this specific time? Just trying to drum up some ideas on this tpoic the obvious would be lower denominations right?

The Military frequently transports cash to banks in other provinces. Iraq Military payroll is one instance where large sums of money require Military transport.