Thread: Archive Latest News - Think Tank - 16/08/07 - 03/11/07

Iraq Kurds need Baghdad's nod for oil exports

Iraq's Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) has signed new oil deals in defiance of Baghdad's wishes but the landlocked region still needs central government approval before it can export any oil.

The semi-autonomous KRG approved four oil and gas production sharing agreements with international oil companies this week, as it moved ahead with plans to lift output to a million barrels per day (bpd) from just a few thousand bpd in about five years.

Iraq's Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said last week that all deals signed by the KRG since February were illegal and that crude from the deals could not be exported legally.

Iraq's draft oil law gives Baghdad's State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO) the exclusive right to export, he said.

The KRG said its deals were legal and SOMO had no such right in the draft law.

The spat over export rights was of little consequence, as no sovereign government from surrounding countries was likely to strike an import deal with the KRG without Baghdad's approval, analysts said.

"Getting oil and gas out of any landlocked region is always problematic," said Julian Lee, senior energy analyst at London's Centre for Global Energy Studies. "And it is distinctly problematic for the Kurdish region, especially if it is seen as carrying out that policy regardless of Baghdad."

Turkey would be the favoured export route, as a pipeline already exists from Iraq's northern oilfields to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.

But Baghdad holds the export agreement with Ankara, while Turkey has a sizeable Kurdish minority and is suspicious of the progress of Iraq's Kurdish region.

Ankara wants to avoid dealing with the Kurdish region directly for fear of encouraging independence, which in turn could have a destabilising effect on Turkey, analysts said.

"The major issue is that Kurdistan is still dependent on reaching agreement with the federal government to export its oil," said Alex Munton, analyst at global consultancy Wood Mackenzie. "This is also influenced by foreign policy. The Turkish government is strongly opposed to Kurdistan taking on greater powers of independence. When it comes to bilateral relations, it deals with Baghdad and not Arbil."

Iran and Syria may be less resistant than Turkey to doing a deal with the KRG, which is based in the city of Arbil, but they too have Kurdish minorities and would be unlikely to sidestep Baghdad, Lee said.

PROBLEM ALREADY

The KRG agreed four new oil deals this week, taking the total number of production sharing agreements its holds to 10.

It plans to contract out all of its oil and gas exploration blocks by the end of the year. Its target of one million bpd would be well above Kurdish consumption and the region plans to export most of its future oil output.

De****e public disagreements with Baghdad, the KRG has done the deals on the assumption that it will have some form of agreement with the central government in place in time to avoid any disruption to oilfield development, Lee said.

But the question of exports has already become an issue for Norway's DNO, which has built a spur to link its Tawke oilfield in the Kurdish region to the pipeline to Ceyhan. DNO has yet to receive permission to export from Baghdad and delivers its oil in trucks to local refineries.

Swiss-based Addax Petroleum is preparing to submit a $1 billion oilfield development plan to the KRG that could bring 200,000 bpd from the Taq Taq field. But the blueprint requires access to an export route.

The passing of the oil law was expected to eventually lead to an agreement on the export route for Kurdish oil, or at least establish the framework for a deal, analysts and industry sources said.

Iraq's cabinet agreed a draft law for dividing the world's third-largest oil reserves in February. But rows with the KRG and objections from some Shi'ite and Sunni Arab politicians have delayed it.

The KRG was considering a privately-financed, one million bpd pipeline from the Kirkuk oilfield north to link up with the Ceyhan line, industry sources said. This project too, would depend on the oil law and the approval of Baghdad, which has itself considered this route in the past.

The line north would allow exports from Kirkuk to bypass the section of the Ceyhan pipeline that dips south towards Baiji and is the frequent target of sabotage attacks that have rendered it mostly unusable since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

Iraq Kurds need Baghdad's nod for oil exports | Iraq Updates

Kurdistan seeking to produce 200 thousand barrels of oil daily

The German earthquake scientist, who works in Iraqi Kurdistan, near the oil fields of Taq Taq, said, "You can dig anywhere you want and crude oil will flow." For more than two years, foreign companies had searched and discovered oil in Kurdistan region. What they had discovered may not be as giant as the field of Papa Kurkur near Kirkuk, but oil companies and the Kurds are happy to do so. Iraq has 115 billion barrels of oil reserve, but it is believed that its real oil wealth is much higher.

Iraqi Kurdistan and the oil-rich region of Kirkuk are two major areas for the interested because of the large and certain oil reserves which they contain. The three provinces of Iraqi Kurdistan are one of the safest areas in Iraq which form an additional impetus for investors and prospectors. The government of Kurdistan region made exploration in the north, through contracting with international oil exploration companies, and this matter provoked the officials in charg for oil in the central government in Baghdad. The Norwegian company "Wilde Cutter EX Norskh Oljessescab" signed a partnership agreement with the territorial government in 2004 according to which it receives 55% of the two licenses. The Norwegian company will get 30 to 10% of the profits and the rest goes to the territorial government. The company estimated that Tauch field near the town of Dohuk contains 100 million barrels and its utmost production will reach 50 thousand barrels per day next year.

But now it appeared that the field contains much more. The latest operations in the rate of flow of Tauch refer to 12 thousand barrels per day, 40% more than the flow of the other field in the same area. The Norwegian company transports 80 trucks a day carrying 10 thousand barrels from the site. The flow rate may go up to 20 thousand or 25 thousand barrels per day, but the transfer of such quantity by land might be difficult and costly. The second phase of drilling was started in May 2006 in Taq Taq area, south Sulaymaniyah, by the excavation company T.T. Opko and Adax Petroleum Company which is a Swiss- Canadian company. T.T. Opko which has a partnership contract with the company Giniel Energy of Turkey will be digging its fourth well and it is expected to dig two other wells by the end of 2007. Kamal Avarraki, an official in the company, said it is expected that the production of the three wells dug by T.T. Opko will reach 75 thousand barrels per day. The reserve in Taq Taq field is estimated by about 1.2 billion barrels. Other companies are making exploration in the region such as Western Oil Sands and the Canadian Heritage Oil Corp, as well as the British company Sterling Energy.

Kurdistan wishes to produce 200 thousand barrels of oil per day by the end of next year and increase them to one million barrels per day within five years. Although the oil reserve in northern Iraq is not as large as the quantity contained in the southern fields around Basrah, but the Minister of Natural Resources, Ashti Horami said that the region "contains good sources", estimating the reserve by 25 billion barrels of oil and 100 trillion square feet of natural gas.

He also pointed to the establishment of a second export pipeline from Kirkuk to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, passing through the Kurdish controlled region, which will provide a greater protection against sabotage attacks which are striking oil pipelines in other regions of the country. Horami estimated the existence of 10 billion barrels of oil in Kirkuk only and 20 billion barrels in other regions of the north, while the reserve is estimated by 55 billion barrels, or what equals half of the declared Iraqi oil reserve. This means the Iraqi Kurds will possess more oil than Nigeria which is the largest producer of oil in Africa.

Kurdistan seeking to produce 200 thousand barrels of oil daily | Iraq Updates

Al-Maliki: The Next Year is the Reconstruction Year

Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki said that the Year 2008 is going to be the year of reconstruction, building and public services, and the security measures alone can not build a society without any other measures in the fields of culture, education, supporting the society groups like women and children and providing services.

Al-Maliki received the Parliament Women and Childhood Committee, and he stressed the necessity on supporting women and children through the ministries of Culture and Education.

He also called the committee to introduce the necessary projects in the last three months of this year, so they can be taken in the consideration of year 2008 budget.

And he called the committee to make a statistic for the widows and especially the martyr wives in ages between 18-40 years and carrying certificates to appoint them.

PUKmedia :: English - Al-Maliki: The Next Year is the Reconstruction Year

Zebari Meets his British Counterpart

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari met his British counterpart David Miliband in London. They discussed the common interest issues and bilateral relations between the two countries.

The Iraqi minister expressed the appreciations of his government for the British support, and he pointed to the diplomatic and political activities towards Iraq from the most important Arabic, Islamic and International countries.

Zebari also presented the latest political and security developments in Iraq, and stressed on the government’s desire to improve the national reconciliation, issuing laws and communicating with the neighbor countries to secure and stabilize the country.

PUKmedia :: English - Zebari Meets his British Counterpart

Who Wants to Carve-Up Iraq and Why

As they prepare to reconvene, Iraq's parliamentarians face a full and complicated legislative agenda. However, their most urgent task should be to nip in the bud the sinister conspiracies designed to carve Iraq into three or more mini-states.

When that weird idea was first aired a couple of years ago, many saw it as no more than an attempt by some anti-Bush politicians to have something to say on an increasingly unpopular war.

Now, however, the idea has received a measure of official recognition in the United States senate thanks to Senator Joseph Biden, one of the leading candidates for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. With 75 votes for and 23 against, the senate has approved Biden's attempt at imperial-style redrawing of the map of the Middle East.
But why should Biden and most of his Democrat party colleagues wish to carve-up Iraq?

How could people who claim to be opposed to the Bush administration's supposedly imperialistic posture take the Sykes-Picot deal as their model?
One can think of at least three reasons.

The first is Biden's desperate attempt at appearing a serious thinker on geostrategy without having to admit that the US has no choice but to remain on the side of the Iraqi people until they defeat their common enemies.

The second reason is that most of the leading Democrats in the senate, including several presidential candidates, believe that by passing resolutions such as this they could calm down their militant anti-war base. Last year, the Democrats recaptured both houses of the Congress partly thanks to the efforts of well-motivate grassroots organizations who had opposed the liberation of Iraq from the start. A year later, however, the Democrats have failed to have any significant effect on President George W Bush's strategy in Iraq. To calm the anti-war movement, the Democrats have to say and do something.

The third and perhaps the most important reason, as always in the Middle East, is oil.

The idea of carving Iraq up into three states, which would mean creating an independent Kurdish state in the north, was first launched by a US former diplomat working for the Norwegian oil company DNO. You would not be surprised to learn that the detailed plan for the carve-up, published in the form of a book, came just weeks after DNO signed a contract with the autonomous Kurdish government in Irbil.

You would also not be surprised to learn that at least a dozen of the senators who backed Biden's carve-up plan have been recipients of campaign contributions from another oil company interested in Iraqi Kurdistan. This one is Hunt Oil, a Texas maverick in the oil business, which cut a deal with the autonomous Kurdish authorities just weeks before Biden made his move.

Also involved in the deal is a Canadian oil company that is already subject of some controversy because of its role in the Sudan, and a small French outfit involved with the Burmese military junta.

When Bush launched the war to topple Saddam Hussein some observers claimed that his real aim was to gain control of Iraq's oil reserves, the third largest in the world. So far, however, major American oil companies have either stayed away from Iraq or tried to gain a foothold in the Kurdish autonomous territory.

"We were told that the Americans want to steal our oil," quips a senior Iraqi official." So far, however, we have trouble persuading them to come to Iraq and do some stealing!"

Over the past two years, the new Iraqi government has negotiated a number of deals with several oil companies from countries across the globe including Japan, China, Korea, India, Algeria and Brazil. The major American oil companies, however, have adopted a wait-and-see attitude pending the passage of a comprehensive law by the Iraqi parliament.
The "carve-up" lobby may think that it is destined to make bundles of money out of easy oil deals with the Kurdish autonomous government that is offering them terms that the central government in Baghdad could not even contemplate.

However, the "carve-up" lobby and its pay******* may burn their fingers. Any oil produced in the landlocked Kurdish autonomous region would have to be exported either through Iraqi itself or via Turkey and Iran. It is certain that the Iraqi central government will not allow foreign companies to operate in part of the national territory without obeying the laws of the country as a whole.

It is also clear that neither Iran, regardless of who rules in Tehran, nor Turkey would allow the emergence of an independent Kurdish state in any part of Iraq. In fact, the passage of Biden's "care-up" resolution by the US senate immediately triggered the creation of a joint Irano-Turkish security commission to prevent Kurdish secessionism in Iraq. The two neighbors had been discussing the scheme since the 1980s. It took the move by the US senate to force them to clinch the deal. At the same time, Iran closed its border with the autonomous region in Iraqi Kurdistan, threatening it with serious economic problems.

Motivated by petty partisan considerations and crass business calculations, the Biden carve-up plan has already done much damage to hopes of translating the recent security gains in Iraq into lasting political facts.

The plan has increased the risk of Turkish military intervention in northern Iraq, something that neither the US not the still weak Iraqi government would be able to ward-off. It has given the mullahs in Tehran an additional excuse to intervene in Iraq, especially through the Kurdish branch of the Hezballah. The carve-up plan has also encouraged the most radical secessionist elements among Iraqi Kurds, a small but active minority. At the other end of the spectrum, the carve-up plan has given ammunition to those among Arab Iraqis who claim that the Kurds do not deserve any measure of autonomy. Pressure from the opposite ends of Kurdish and Arab chauvinists may weaken, or even break, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's fragile coalition.

Finally, the carve-up pan and the oil deals associated with is already putting a strain on the Kurdish alliance itself, a multiparty concoction that has kept the autonomous region free of violence.

According to good sources, Jalal Talabani, the head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and currently President of Iraq, is opposed to any move that might weaken the central government in Baghdad. However, the Demnocratic Party of Kurdistan of Iraq (KDPI) and its leader, Massoud Barzani, who heads the autonomous region's government, appear more receptive to the carve-up idea.

Anyone familiar with Iraq would know that the overwhelming majority of Iraqis, Arabs and Kurds, are opposed to any carve-up. In fact, Biden and his friends would be hard put to find a single Iraqi figure of any significance to endorse their imperialistic exercise. Why should the US turn the majority of Iraqis from friends to foe by proposing to divide their nation against their will?

The US ands its allies came to Iraq with a clear mandate: to remove the tyrannical regime and to allow the Iraqis to build a system of their free choice. Dividing Iraq was never part of the deal.

Who Wants to Carve-Up Iraq and Why | Iraq Updates

Iraqi leaders turn against US-created 'militias'
Iraq PM says new ‘anti-Qaeda’ armed groups should be placed under control of army.

The Iraqi government lashed out on Thursday against a US military initiative that pits civilians against Al-Qaeda fighters, accusing it of creating new militias in the war-weary nation.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's media adviser Yasin Majeed said the Shiite-led government was now trying to bring armed groups set up by the US military under the control of the Iraqi army.

"There are groups which have set up checkpoints without coordinating with the government," he said. "Apparently they coordinated with the (US military). They should be placed under army control."

Maliki and his Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) parliamentary bloc this week sharply criticised what it said was a US policy of creating armed groups outside the control of central government.

"The (project) involves founding new militias outside the law. It is also an interference in the security and political affairs of the country and creates a serious situation now and in the future," the UIA said in a statement on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Maliki also delivered a stinging condemnation of the US-led initiative.

"There shall be no handing over of weapons away from the control of the state," he told a news conference. "The state and the reconciliation committee formed by the government should be aware of those holding weapons."

The only volunteers, he added, should be "the security units of army and police where the sons of the region are taking part in its protection."

US commander Colonel Robert Menti said this week that about 50,000 Iraqi civilians had joined 150 different initiatives across the country aimed at putting Al-Qaeda operatives to flight and restoring normal life to neighbourhoods.

Initiatives range from powerful tribal leaders banding together to hunt down extremists to local programmes in which volunteers wearing orange sashes and armed with AK-47s tip off police about suspicious activity or round up suspects.

The process was started by Sheikh Abdul Sattar Abu Reesha, a Sunni tribal leader in western Anbar province, who on September 14 last year formed a powerful coalition of 42 tribes against Al-Qaeda, known as the Anbar Awakening Conference.

Abu Reesha was killed by a roadside bomb on September 13 in an attack in the Anbar capital Ramadi that was claimed by Al-Qaeda.

According to Iraqi newspaper reports, the Shiite backlash against the mainly-Sunni initiative was sparked by the actions of a group of tribesmen from Anbar who were brought into Baghdad's dangerous western Saydiya neighbourhood to clamp down on Shiite militias of the Mahdi Army of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

The UIA statement accused the so-called "Saydiya Awakening" tribesmen of criminal activities in the district.

"Some of the members of these armed groups implemented acts of kidnapping, killing and blackmailing in Saydiya," the UIA statement said.
Menti, who is deputy head of the military's Reconciliation Cell in Iraq, was adamant that the process is being driven by Iraqis and not the US military, which however funds the groups.

"It is an Iraqi process driven by the Iraqi people. People come to us (the US military) and the Iraqi security forces and we all coordinate the process. It is not our initiative," said Menti.

"These people are not militias," he said. "We are not arming them or giving them ammunition. We are not creating paramilitaries."

Iraqi leaders turn against US-created 'militias' | Iraq Updates

Iraq Pumps Daily 600 Thousand Barrels of Oil form Kirkuk

A source said that Iraq pumped 600.000 barrel/day of Kirkuk’s oil to Turkey.

”Pumping is continuous by an average of 25.000 barrel/hour or 500 to 600 thousand barrels/day.”

Navigational sources mentioned that Iraq has resumed pumping the oil through the northern pipes line to Turkey after it has been stopped for 10 days.

The terrorist attacks stopped pumping of oil from Kirkuk fields to Jehan Harbor for several times since March 2003, and the last attack was in Sept. 19th.

The source added that there are 3.7 million barrels of oil in the containers of Jehan Harbor, and this amount is available after loading an Oiler with an amount of 1.1 million barrels.

Iraq soled by auction an amount of 5 million barrels in Jehan Harbor, which must be loaded on stages of 1-2 million barrels till Oct. 22nd, and it has soled earlier an amount of 2.5 million barrels to be loaded by Oct. 5th.

It’s worth mentioning that Iraq’s major dependence is on exporting oil from al-Basrah Harbor, where an amount of 1.5 million barrels are soled daily.

PUKmedia :: English - Iraq Pumps Daily 600 Thousand Barrels of Oil form Kirkuk

Contradictory reports on US raid on Diyala persist - 3rd Update

Contradictory accounts persisted Friday about adawn US raid on a village near Baquba which media reports said killed at least 25 civilians and wounded 40 others, while the US claimed the target was against people involved in criminal activity. Both Iraqiya State TV and independent Sharkiya TV reported that at least 25 civilians were killed and 40 others injured when US planes attacked the village of Gezani al-Imam north-west of Baquba.

A further media outlet, the Al-Forat TV, which is the voice of the Shiite Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, reported that over 30 civilians were killed and 50 others were wounded in the operation.

The number of casualties is most likely to increase as many bodies had yet to be recovered from the civilian houses destroyed during the attack, a police source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told independent Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.

The victims, the source added, included women and children.

US helicopters fired a number of missiles against houses in the village at dawn, local residents said.

But according to a statement by the US military, coalition forces targeted a special groups commander believed to be associated with members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard - Quds Force - in the dawn operation.

Intelligence had indicated he was involved in criminal activity and in helping the movement of various weapons from Iran to the Iraqi capital, the statement added.

Coalition forces had come under heavy fire from armed men when they entered the targeted area and returned fire, the US military said. Coalition forces then called in air support in the gunbattle.

Pan-Arab al-Arabiya news broadcaster had earlier said that the armed men were not likely to be terrorists and that they were carrying weapons to protect themselves from militants who are spreading through the city.

Diyala has become one of the most dangerous regions in recent months in Iraq, with members of the al-Qaeda terror network streaming into the region from other areas of the country.

Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, is 60 kilometres north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Meanwhile, eight al-Qaeda terrorist network militants were killed and 28 others were detained in an Iraqi security raid south-east of Samarra city in Salahaddin province, a provisional police source said Friday.

Among the killed was the Saudi Abu Obada who was the leader of al- Qaeda north Tigris area and Ali Youssif al-Jabouri, the Mufti of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq, an al-Qaeda affiliate, Major Ahmed Sobhi from anti-terrorism unit in Salahaddin police command said.

Al-Jabouri was responsible for a fatwa (a binding religious opinion) that stipulates the killing of at least 100 residents of Duluiyah for resisting al-Qaeda militants.

Three security personnel were killed and nine others wounded in the clashes erupting between the forces and the militants.

The security forces, meanwhile, confiscated large amounts of weapons, rockets, explosive belts and vehicles. They also freed a number of hostages.

In another development, the US army reported that a US soldier was killed Thursday south of Baghdad.

In other news, VOI reported that two Shiite clerics had been found murdered in their homes over the past two days in the predominantly Shiite city of Basra.

One of the victims taught at a religious school and the other at an Islamic university, the report said.

The latest murders follow on events in September, when several representatives of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the supreme spiritual leader of Iraq's Shiites, were murdered in Basra.

The murders triggered speculation that they were not carried out by Sunnis, but rather by rival Shiite groups, possibly supported by Iran.

Contradictory reports on US raid on Diyala persist - 3rd Update : Middle East World

Iraq: Oil deals approved in Kurdistan de****e protests

Kurdistan's regional government has approved two new oil deals and will soon sign another two contracts, de****e protests from the Iraqi government.

The Iraqi oil minister, Hussain al-Shahristani, opposes the deals saying that these kinds of deal can only be enacted under federal laws governing oil and gas.

Spokesman for the regional Kurdish government, Jamal Abdallah, has invited those opposed to the deals to take action in the Federal Supreme Court,.

"The contracts are valid and legal and based on the Iraqi constitution," Abdallah stressed.

In an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI), Abdallah said that five foreign companies of different nationalities work in the oil sector in Kurdistan.

He said they included Turkish-Canadian company, Canal Energy, which has operated in the area of TaqTaq in Erbil province since 2005, the Norwegian DNO operates in Dahuk province and the US oil giant Hunt, which has signed an agreement with the regional government.

"All the contracts approved by the regional executive are based on oil and gas laws passed by the regional government and the government authorises us to sign these accords," Abdallah told Adnkronos.

AKI - Adnkronos international Iraq: Oil deals approved in Kurdistan de****e protests

U.N.’s Secretary General Representative Ends his Work in Iraq

Iraqi Foreign Ministry made a fast breaking banquet in the honor of the U.N. Secretary General Representative in Iraq, Ashraf Qadhi, in the occasion of ending his work in Iraq.

The banquet were made in the attendance of the Minister of Oil Dr. Hussein al-Shahrstani, Deputies of Foreign Minister Dr. Mohammed al-Haj Hamood and Waleed Abawi, heads of Ministry Departments and the heads of diplomatic delegations in Iraq.

Dr. Mohammed al-Haj in his speech referred to the effective role of Dr. Ashraf in Iraq and wished him luck in his new mission.

On his side, Dr. Ashraf expressed his appreciations for the Iraqi Government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for their help to succeed his work.

The Deputy Waleed Abawi presented a gift to Dr. Ashraf for his vital efforts.

PUKmedia :: English - U.N.’s Secretary General Representative Ends his Work in Iraq