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

Zebari: Baghdad 2nd Conference positive, constructive

09 Sep 2007

Baghdad (NINA) – Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari described Baghdad's Second Conference of Neighbouring Countries, held on Sunday, Sep. 9, of being positive, constructive and very useful.

Translated version of http://www.ninanews.com/

Iraq PM urges neighbours to work 'seriously' to end bloodshed

09/09/2007

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki at a high-profile conference in Baghdad on Sunday urged Iraq's neighbours to step up efforts to end the bloodshed that has plagued his war-ravaged country.

alJazeera Magazine

Iraq PM opens Baghdad Conference on security

09/09/2007

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Sunday opened the Baghdad Conference bringing together neighbours of his war-ravaged country and other global players to find ways to end the bloodshed in Iraq.

alJazeera Magazine

Iraqi oil minister vows tenders this year even if new law isn't ready

Existing legislation will be used until agreement can be reached on changes

Monday, September 10, 2007

Iraq will issue tenders for international oil companies (IOCs) to develop its existing fields this year, even if a long-awaited new law to regulate the energy sector is delayed, Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said.

"Although we have been waiting for this new law for political reasons, if it is delayed we will go ahead and start discussions with IOCs, especially in current fields to increase production levels," he told an oil conference in Dubai on Saturday.

"There is no legislation vacuum. There is a prevailing law, which authorizes us to carry out any field development contract. This we will be pursuing, and you will see shortly the tendering calling for IOCs to work with us to develop current fields in addition to a gas master plan," he added.

Asked how soon the tenders would be issued, he said: "Well before the end of the year."

He added that Iraq plans to raise crude-oil production to 3.5 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of 2009 and will build pipelines to supply oil and gas to Syria and Iran. In addition, Texas' Hunt Oil Co. and the Kurdistan Regional Government said they have signed a production-sharing contract for petroleum exploration in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, the first such deal since the Kurds passed their own oil and gas law in August.

Shahristani said last month that Iraq would call an open race for about one-third of Iraq's prized fields in September, but only once the new federal oil law was passed.

Now it seems the tenders will be issued with or without the new law, which will decide how Iraq's third-largest proven oil reserves will be shared out and has been mired in political bickering.

A draft bill was approved by the Iraqi government in July after months of talks but has yet to be debated by Parliament, which returned this month from its summer break.

Shahristani reiterated comments by other Iraqi officials that the oil law should be passed "within a few weeks," but disagreements over the details persist.

The Kurdistan Regional Government has already forced the renegotiation of the bill and international oil executives privately say they are wary about entering Iraq before the new legal framework for the energy sector, which provides more than 90 percent of Iraqi government revenue, is in place.

Shahristani said the delay in the law would not delay plans to develop the sector, which is in dire need of investment after a decade of sanctions and four years of violence since the US-led invasion of 2003.

"Iraq has an oil law. It has always had one and it is the prevailing law until the new one is legislated. The Oil Ministry can sign any contract to develop capacity and increase oil production," he said. "This is needed for the reconstruction."

Shahristani said Iraq would supply Syria with 50 million cubic feet of gas a day and Iran with 100,000 bpd of crude through pipelines that would be built in the coming year.

The tender to build the Iraqi side of the small pipeline to Deir al-Zour in eastern Syria would be launched in September, Shahristani said.

He said the deal with Iran would involve building a pipeline from Iraq's southern city of Basra to Iran's Abadan refinery.

Overall, the OPEC producer sees its crude output rising to 6 million bpd during the next 10 years from 2.5 million now, but its plans depend on the security situation.

Sabotage has plagued Iraq's oil sector since the US-led invasion of 2003 sparked an insurgency and the country has not been able to raise output to pre-war levels of some 3 million bpd.

Shahristani said he did not expect the withdrawal of British troops from southern Iraq to expose facilities in the region, home to most of the country's oil reserves, to more attacks.

"The pullout of British troops has no impact on oil facilities because they were not protecting these installations. This is the responsibility of the Oil Ministry," he said. "We see a substantial increase in oil and gas resources and a doubling of oil output."

In Kurdistan, Hunt Oil Co. of the Kurdistan region will begin geological survey and seismic work by the end of 2007 and hopes to drill an exploration well in 2008, Hunt Oil and the Kurdistan Regional Government said in a news release Saturday.

Hunt is a privately held, independent oil company based in Dallas, Texas. A third partner, Impulse Energy Corp., also has a stake in the project.

Revenue will be shared by the regional government throughout Iraq, consistent with the Iraq Constitution and the Kurds' new petroleum law, issued by the Kurdistan National Assembly early last month.

When the Kurdish self-governing region in northern Iraq enacted its own law governing foreign oil investments, in August, the move angered the central government in Baghdad, but the Kurds are determined to push ahead with oil exploration.
Ashti Hawrami, the regional government's of natural resources minister, said in a statement that the signing by Hunt is evidence the government's new oil and gas law has created "a supportive and transparent business environment which promotes investment by international oil companies in our region for the benefit of all." - Reuters, AP

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article....cle_id=85 131

Interactive feature: Iraq surge

Published: September 9 2007 17:56

General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, is to present to Congress his long-awaited assessement of the military ”surge” in Iraq, in which five additional combat brigades were deployed.

Though most experts agree that security in Baghdad has improved since the surge began in February, its overall success is contested. In a letter to US troops ahead of his testimony, Gen Petraeus conceded that the ”tangible political progress” expected from that the surge was supposed to spur had ”not worked out as we had hoped”.

FT.com’s interactive graphic presents the effect of the surge in numbers: US military deaths and wounded, US, coalition and Iraqi troop strength, and the death toll of Iraqi military and police.

FT.com / World - Interactive feature: Iraq surge

Iraqis try to curb pressure on US to quit

Published: September 9 2007

The surprise decision by a Sunni Arab party to rejoin the Iraqi government at the weekend was one of several last-minute moves designed to curb domestic US pressure to withdraw troops and to show that Iraqis are capable of compromise.

This decision, along with a broad-brush deal reached between leaders of five of Iraq’s big parties a fortnight ago, may allow US officials testifying before Congress next week to argue that the strife-torn country’s long political deadlock is beginning to break.

However, Iraqi politicians have yet to deliver the actual legislation to parliament, suggesting that key political compromises – which the US hopes will undercut support for Sunni rebels – remain elusive.

A report released last week by the US Government Accountability Office said Iraq had fully met only three out of 18 benchmarks for political, economic and military progress – adding weight to demands that the US should withdraw rather than propping up an ineffective Iraqi government crippled by sectarian differences.

Saleh al-Mutlek, head of the Iraqi National Dialogue Front, the second-largest Sunni bloc in parliament, was quoted by news agencies at the weekend as saying that his group’s 11 parliamentarians would end a boycott of the assembly.

Mr Mutlek said the group had received assurances from the government that funds would be given to displaced Iraqis – thought to be disproportionately Sunni.

The government had agreed to delay a controversial oil law, he said. He praised Washington for taking what he said was a more even-handed approach in talking to Shia Arabs, Kurds and Sunni Arabs.

Iraq’s largest Sunni Arab coalition, the Iraqi Consensus Front, continues to boycott the government.

However, Mr Mutlek’s statement was the latest in a series of small signs of rapprochement between Sunni-led parties and the country’s Shia and Kurdish-dominated government. The most important step has been an August 27 deal between the leaders of the main parties from all three communities.

They proclaimed a partial amnesty for security detainees – the great majority of whom are presumed to be Sunni – as well as agreement on the texts of the oil and de-Ba’athification laws to be presented to parliament.

Ryan Crocker, US ambassador to Baghdad, is likely to cite the August deal in US Congress testimony this week. He may also concede that political progress in Iraq on the national level has not kept pace with the military’s counter-insurgency campaign.

Mr Mutlek’s claim that the government has agreed to delay the oil law suggests that the August deal may not yield immediate dividends.

The government does not appear to have made much progress in selling the laws to sceptics, including many Shia as well as Sunni representatives. Critics of the oil law say it will allow foreign companies and the autonomous regional government in the Kurdish-dominated north too great a role in controlling Iraq’s oil resources.

Opinion is also divided over the law to roll back de-Ba’athification, which some influential Shia clerics say would allow “criminal” members of the former ruling party to return to public life.

Nonetheless, there are indications of increased goodwill between the leaders of Iraq’s main parties – or at least a determination to forestall the withdrawal of US troops, which many in Iraq say would lead to a power vacuum.

Tareq al-Hashemi, Iraq’s Sunni Arab vice-president, has announced that 50 detainees will be released each day during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins this week.

The US military is hoping that political breakthroughs will boost its campaign to turn Sunni Arab tribes against the radical al-Qaeda network.

Sunni tribal leaders are perhaps most concerned with seeing their kin released from detention, while a reversal of de-Ba’athification is considered necessary to bring former military officers and others who once allied with the insurgency back into the political process.

The US hopes the oil law will reassure Sunnis that they will still receive a solid share of national oil export revenues under a new political order dominated by the Shia majority.

US officials also hope that Iraq’s government will pass a law to allow new provincial elections, which would give legitimacy to local authorities in Sunni areas where much of the population boycotted previous votes.

But Shia leaders are sceptical of US plans to support Sunni tribes and may be reluctant to hand power back to a former ruling class that some say cheated the Shia majority of a rightful political role in the country for generations.

Sunni politicians might also be stepping up their demands. Washington desperately wants Iraqi compromises that it can show the US public to forestall pressure to withdraw troops.

FT.com / In depth - Iraqis try to curb pressure on US to quit

Iraq chides 'meddling' neighbours

Sunday, 9 September 2007

Iraqi leaders have criticised neighbouring countries for interfering into the country's internal affairs.
The prime minister and his foreign minister made the accusation at an international security conference in Baghdad, attended by Syria and Iran.

The US has accused Syria and Iran of failing to stop the infiltration of militants or arming them.

The meeting came a day before the US's top general in Iraq testifies on the impact of the latest troop increase.

Also on the agenda at the Baghdad conference were the large numbers of refugees and the country's energy problems.

The first such conference was in Baghdad in March this year. It provided Syria, Iran and the United States with the opportunity to meet informally and discuss Iraq.

That conference was followed up in May by a similar high level gathering at the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

One outcome of that was the International Compact for Iraq - a UN sponsored, five-year national plan to help to consolidate peace, governance and reconstruction in Iraq.

Hands off

Syria and Iran deny accusations that they are helping the insurgency.

The neighbouring countries' foreign ministers or their appointees attended the Baghdad meeting, along with envoys from the UN Security Council, the Arab League and G8, which includes the US.

Without naming names, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki told the gathering: "Our constitution stipulates good relations with neighbouring countries, not interfering in domestic affairs."

Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari urged them to take practical measures to help secure Iraq's borders and prevent the infiltration of insurgents.

"There should be an active and practical contribution to controlling borders and banning terrorist and criminal infiltrators from getting into Iraqi territory.

"Efforts should be exerted to tighten the noose on terrorism," he said - as "the fire that terrorists and criminals are setting in the land of the two rivers [Iraq] will extend outside it."

Mr Zebari went on to charge: "Many countries say they support Iraq's stability and integrity, but at the same time are interfering in a number of different ways."

He did not identify any country by name.

"We need to say those interfering in Iraq's affairs must lay their hands off this nation and leave it to decide its own destiny away from terrorism," Iraq's foreign minister said.

Mr Zebari said Iraq would also ban the infiltration of militants into neighbouring countries.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iraq chides 'meddling' neighbours

New Report Recommends Iraq Handover in 5 Years
Panel Also Calls for 50 Percent Troop Reduction Within 3 Years

In a report to be released Sunday, a panel of experts assembled by the U.S. Institute of Peace calls for a 50 percent reduction in U.S. forces in Iraq within three years and a total withdrawal and handover of security to the Iraqi military in five years.

"The United States faces too many challenges around the world to continue its current level of effort in Iraq, or even the deployment that was in place before the surge," the report says. " . . . It is time to chart a clearer path forward."

The panel includes many of the experts that advised the Iraq Study Group panel led by former secretary of state James A. Baker III and former Democratic congressman Lee H. Hamilton, which issued its report last December. Many of its recommendations have since been adopted, some reluctantly, by the Bush administration. The U.S. Institute of Peace ran the Baker-Hamilton report and assembled the experts.

The White House blocked the reconvening of the Baker-Hamilton panel, which was evenly divided among 10 prominent Democrats and Republicans, by urging Baker not to participate, according to U.S. officials. So USIP reconvened the experts who had advised them. The group, which met through the summer, is made up of some two dozen former U.S. officials and ambassadors, former CIA analysts, and Iraq spe******ts from think tanks and universities.

The recommendations in "Iraq: A Time for Change," the last of several reports published in the run-up to the Bush administration's assessment of Iraq this week, also call on the United Nations to immediately begin "intense negotiations" among Iraq's squabbling politicians. The talks should not be allowed to adjourn without agreements on power-sharing, revising the constitution, oil resources, local elections, easing a ban on former Baath Party members and the future of Kirkuk, the report urges. A similar model was used to broker an end to the war in Bosnia.

With some recent security improvements, the biggest problem facing the Bush administration and Iraq is the failure of politicians in Baghdad to reconcile Sunni and Shiite factions and pass critical laws to secure the fledgling new democracy. "The situation remains fluid, but a window has opened, fleetingly, for Iraq to proceed with political reconciliation. Iraq's national politicians have been unable to take full advantage of this opportunity," says the report, authored by USIP vice president Daniel Serwer.

The Baker-Hamilton report was most contentious because of its recommendations on diplomatic outreach to Iran and Syria. The new report says the United States should block Iranian attempts to control Iraqi politics and interdict its arms supplies to Iraqi militias, while also continuing to talk to Tehran directly and accommodating some Iranian interests in a neighboring state. "As long as the U.S. and Iran engage in a zero sum context for influence, Iraq will remain in turmoil and the U.S. will be bogged down," the report warns.

The report generally blasts Iraq's neighbors for failing to help stabilize Iraq. But it also criticizes the United States for losing the confidence of key allies in the region because of Iraq.

In contrast to a growing number of recent calls for various forms of breaking up Iraq along religious and ethnic lines, the report strongly stands against partition of one of the geo-strategic powerhouses in the Middle East, but leaves the question of decentralizing power to the Iraqis.

New Report Recommends Iraq Handover in 5 Years - washingtonpost.com

Originally Posted by Lunar

Iraqi oil minister vows tenders this year even if new law isn't ready

Existing legislation will be used until agreement can be reached on changes

Monday, September 10, 2007

Iraq will issue tenders for international oil companies (IOCs) to develop its existing fields this year, even if a long-awaited new law to regulate the energy sector is delayed, Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said.

[COLOR="rgb(255, 0, 255)"]"Although we have been waiting for this new law for political reasons, if it is delayed we will go ahead and start discussions with IOCs, especially in current fields to increase production levels," he told an oil conference in Dubai on Saturday.[/COLOR]

"There is no legislation vacuum. There is a prevailing law, which authorizes us to carry out any field development contract. This we will be pursuing, and you will see shortly the tendering calling for IOCs to work with us to develop current fields in addition to a gas master plan," he added. What is the Prevailing LAW??? is it the old law under Sadam or is it a Law from the 70's early 80's?? if so Do they already have a Rate for oil with this law???

Asked how soon the tenders would be issued, he said: "[COLOR="rgb(255, 0, 255)"]Well before the end of the year."
[/COLOR]
He added that Iraq plans to raise crude-oil production to 3.5 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of 2009 and will build pipelines to supply oil and gas to Syria and Iran. In addition, Texas' Hunt Oil Co. and the Kurdistan Regional Government said they have signed a production-sharing contract for petroleum exploration in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, the first such deal since the Kurds passed their own oil and gas law in August.

Shahristani said last month that Iraq would call an open race for about one-third of Iraq's prized fields in September, but only once the new federal oil law was passed.

Now it seems the tenders will be issued with or without the new law, which will decide how Iraq's third-largest proven oil reserves will be shared out and has been mired in political bickering.

A draft bill was approved by the Iraqi government in July after months of talks but has yet to be debated by Parliament, which returned this month from its summer break.

Shahristani reiterated comments by other Iraqi officials that the oil law should be passed "within a few weeks," but disagreements over the details persist.

The Kurdistan Regional Government has already forced the renegotiation of the bill and international oil executives privately say they are wary about entering Iraq before the new legal framework for the energy sector, which provides more than 90 percent of Iraqi government revenue, is in place.

Shahristani said the delay in the law would not delay plans to develop the sector, which is in dire need of investment after a decade of sanctions and four years of violence since the US-led invasion of 2003.

"Iraq has an oil law. It has always had one and it is the prevailing law until the new one is legislated. The Oil Ministry can sign any contract to develop capacity and increase oil production," he said. "This is needed for the reconstruction."

Shahristani said Iraq would supply Syria with 50 million cubic feet of gas a day and Iran with 100,000 bpd of crude through pipelines that would be built in the coming year.

The tender to build the Iraqi side of the small pipeline to Deir al-Zour in eastern Syria would be launched in September, Shahristani said.

He said the deal with Iran would involve building a pipeline from Iraq's southern city of Basra to Iran's Abadan refinery.

Overall, the OPEC producer sees its crude output rising to 6 million bpd during the next 10 years from 2.5 million now, but its plans depend on the security situation.

Sabotage has plagued Iraq's oil sector since the US-led invasion of 2003 sparked an insurgency and the country has not been able to raise output to pre-war levels of some 3 million bpd.

Shahristani said he did not expect the withdrawal of British troops from southern Iraq to expose facilities in the region, home to most of the country's oil reserves, to more attacks.

"The pullout of British troops has no impact on oil facilities because they were not protecting these installations. This is the responsibility of the Oil Ministry," he said. "We see a substantial increase in oil and gas resources and a doubling of oil output."

In Kurdistan, Hunt Oil Co. of the Kurdistan region will begin geological survey and seismic work by the end of 2007 and hopes to drill an exploration well in 2008, Hunt Oil and the Kurdistan Regional Government said in a news release Saturday.

Hunt is a privately held, independent oil company based in Dallas, Texas. A third partner, Impulse Energy Corp., also has a stake in the project.

Revenue will be shared by the regional government throughout Iraq, consistent with the Iraq Constitution and the Kurds' new petroleum law, issued by the Kurdistan National Assembly early last month.

When the Kurdish self-governing region in northern Iraq enacted its own law governing foreign oil investments, in August, the move angered the central government in Baghdad, but the Kurds are determined to push ahead with oil exploration.
Ashti Hawrami, the regional government's of natural resources minister, said in a statement that the signing by Hunt is evidence the government's new oil and gas law has created "a supportive and transparent business environment which promotes investment by international oil companies in our region for the benefit of all." - Reuters, AP

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article....cle_id=85 131

or is it the Kurds oil law???

Originally Posted by Hope Full

or is it the Kurds oil law???

It is possible that they are referring to the Kurdish oil law...or there may have been a pre-existing oil law still on the books. I'll dig around and see what I can find.