Thread: Archive Latest News - Think Tank - 01/01/08 - 14/04/08

Emergency plan implemented in Basra

An emergency plan started on Wednesday to track down gunmen and to quell violence and armed attacks, the chief of the Basra police said.

"Basra police launched an emergency plan to hunt down all gunmen after a series of killing and kidnapping operations," General Abdul Jaleel Khalaf told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI) by phone.

Last Monday, unidentified gunmen killed the inspector general of al-Nassiriya province and three policemen escorting him in central Basra.
"The plan is being implemented with the support of army forces," the general said.

"5000 policemen were deployed throughout Basra to hunt down criminals and gunmen who aim at destabilizing security in the southern province," Khalaf explained.

"We will wage crackdown operations to quell violence and armed attacks," he added, noting that the operation will continue until realizing all its goals.

Analysts said that there are some powers attempting to play a pivotal role in destabilizing the situation in Basra, such as traffickers and some tribal chiefs.

Basra is 590 km south of Baghdad.

Aswat Aliraq

OPEC MEETING Cartel does not need to alter current output levels - Iraq

OPEC has no need to alter its current levels of production, Iraqi oil minister Hussain Al-Shahristani told reporters on his arrival here ahead of the cartel's production meeting later today.

'There doesn't seem to be a need to revise current production levels,' said Shahristani.

OPEC meets later to consider changes to its output quotas, which are currently set at 29.67 mln barrels per day, excluding Iraqi production of some 2.5 mln bpd.

The cartel is widely expected to roll over its current quotas as it balances the conflicting factors of rising stockpiles and falling demand against near-record prices.

OPEC MEETING Cartel does not need to alter current output levels - Iraq - Forbes.com

OPEC confirms will keep production unchanged - Iraq

VIENNA (Thomson Financial) - Iraqi oil minister Hussain Al-Shahristani has confirmed that OPEC will keep output quotas unchanged, as widely expected.

MoneyAM - Free Share Prices, Stock Quotes, Charts, News, Level2

Update.........

Iraq Is in `Advanced' Talks With International Oil Companies

March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Iraq, holder of the world's third- largest crude oil reserves, is in ``advanced'' negotiations with international oil companies to develop five oil fields in the country.

``We hope to conclude a deal within weeks,'' Iraq Oil Ministry Spokesman Asim Jihad said today in a phone interview from Iraq. ``These deals will help us boost production by 500,000 barrels a day,'' he said.

In February, Iraq held talks with Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Exxon Mobil Corp., BP Plc, Chevron Corp. and Total SA on technical support contracts to help boost its oil-output capacity.

Bloomberg.com: Energy

Another update.......

Iraq OKs agreements with foreign oil firms

Iraq's cabinet has given the nod to the Oil Ministry to ink agreements with foreign oil firms to help boost the country's crude output, a ministry official said Wednesday. According to the AP, the two-year deals, known as technical support agreements, or TSAs, are meant to develop five producing fields to add 500,000 barrels per day to Iraq's 2.4 million barrels per day output.

Late last year, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, BP PLC, ExxonMobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. submitted technical and financial proposals for the five fields and received counterproposals from the Iraqi side. In January, representatives from the firms and Iraq met again in Amman and they will hold a third round of discussions later this month, said the official.

Iraq's average production was 2.4 million barrels per day in January while exports stood at an average of 1.92 million barrels per day. December's exports averaged 1.81 million barrels per day.


The oil giants are among more than 70 international firms that met the ministry's deadline of Feb. 18 to compete to help develop Iraq's oil reserves.

albawaba.com middle east news information::Iraq OKs agreements with foreign oil firms

Shell Pursues Natural Gas Deal With Iraq

Summary

Royal Dutch Shell has submitted a proposal to the Iraqi oil ministry to produce about 500 million cubic feet per day of gas from major southern oil fields where most associated gas is currently flared, Iraqi and industry sources told International Oil Daily this week.

Shell Pursues Natural Gas Deal With Iraq

Iraq hiring locals to guard, not bomb Oil

Iraq will continue its policy of hiring locals to protect new oil and gas infrastructure, especially pipelines, its oil minister said.

Such a policy, along with construction of better security infrastructure around pipelines, is assumed responsible for increasing production and exports in Iraq's northern infrastructure.

The pipeline from the Kirkuk oil fields to Turkey juts into a territory once heavy with insurgents, and from early 2003 to late summer 2007 it was mostly offline due to attacks.

Now those insurgents are paid not to blow it up, but to protect it, Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said.

"This is what we are going to do in any area where we are going to develop an oil or gas field or lay a new pipeline or carry out any new activity," he told CNN. "We are going to recruit people from the very community."

Many explosions in the oil infrastructure are attributed to smugglers, such as those who accidentally make sparks when drilling into a pipeline and trigger a blast.

Most of Iraq's 115 billion barrels of proven reserves are located in the south, and about 90 percent of exports head to market from there as well. While violence is still rampant in the Shiite-controlled south as well, it's usually from an intra-sectarian power struggle, and neither side wants to target the lifeline of the country.

Iraq's oil sales generated up to $40 billion last year, though some U.S. State Department statistics put it closer to about $35 billion.

Iraq hiring locals to guard, not bomb oil - UPI.com

Activating Ahdab's Field Investment Contract

Wassit governor Hamad al-T'arfa, emphasized that, the province activated with oil ministry the investment project of Ahdab field in Kut.

He added that they performed discussions last week in Amman between the oil ministry and one of the Chinese company which would start pulling out the oil from Ahdab field, pointing that the province granted the Chinese company to offer the secure for them.

Worth mentioning that, the old contract were canceled since it were as (a common contract) which could donating a share from the oil to the Chinese company, while the new contract were to provide for donating mounts of the money for the pulling out company or donating quantities of the oil according to the ruling price.

Activating Ahdab's Field Investment Contract | Iraq Updates

Iran Team Leaves without US Talks on Iraq

An Iranian delegation left Baghdad for home on Thursday without holding talks with officials from archfoe the United States on the security situation in Iraq, an Iranian official said.

"The delegation has left Baghdad because the Americans refused to conduct any negotiations," the official close to Tehran's negotiators told AFP.

Delegation head Reza Amiri Moghaddam had been quoted by the Iranian media as saying a new round of talks would be held on Thursday in Baghdad, but both US and Iraqi officials denied any such dialogue had been scheduled.

"The government of Iraq was busy with the visit of the Iranian president and there was no time to fix the date for the talks. There were no talks fixed for today," Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told AFP.

US embassy spokesman Philip Reeker also said there were "no trilateral talks today."

Iran and the United States held three rounds of talks about Iraq last year despite mounting tensions over the Iranian nuclear programme. The two foes have had no diplomatic relations since 1980.

A fourth round of talks was scheduled for last month but postponed.
The fact that such talks took place at all, given the acrimonious history between the two, was hailed as a landmark event.

US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Kazemi Qomi held face-to-face talks in May and and July last year, the highest level public contacts between the two sides for 27 years.

Both sides also met at experts' level last August, but there has been no meeting since.

The United States accuses Iran of meddling in Iraq by helping to train Shiite militias and shipping in armour-piercing bombs for attacks against US troops. Iran vehemently denies the charges.

PUKmedia :: English - Iran Team Leaves without US Talks on Iraq

Short-Term Oil Deals Being Sought

The Iraqi government is negotiating with American and European oil companies to manage the development of five new fields in northern and southern Iraq, an Oil Ministry official said Wednesday.

Iraq hopes to reach two-year agreements that will help it reach its goal of increasing crude oil production by 500,000 barrels a day, said Asim Jihad, a spokesman for the Oil Ministry.

Iraq once had one of the region's strongest agricultural and industrial economies. But U.N. sanctions and years of war with Iran destroyed much of its economic base, leaving the nation heavily dependent on petrodollars. Hobbled by armed conflict, mismanagement and neglect, Iraq produces less oil than its potential capacity.

Jihad declined to identify the companies invited to bid on the technical service contracts because the deals have not been completed. In December, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Chevron and Irving-based Exxon Mobil submitted technical and financial proposals for the five fields and received counterproposals from the Iraqi side.

Jihad said Iraqi officials selected specific companies for their knowledge of Iraq's oil fields and their expertise in managing large development projects.

The negotiations are in their second round, he said, and will likely be completed by the end of this month.

"These companies can offer their management experience, oil field studies and consultation on technology," he said. "And the Iraqis will execute. The Iraqis will provide the labor."

Compensation
In Vienna, Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said Iraq intends to compensate these companies with crude oil rather than cash, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

Despite Iraq's enormous reserves, global oil companies have been reluctant to invest because of lack of clarity among Iraqi politicians about how to develop the industry and how to share profits. The monumental scale of the violence in Iraq has also dissuaded many investors.

"These short-term contracts are the best we can do under the current conditions," Jihad said.

Speaking to reporters as he arrived for a meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, al-Shahristani said the Oil Ministry is still working on the compensation details with the Development Fund of Iraq, which is controlled by the United States and the United Nations.

The country has been relying on a Saddam Hussein-era natural resources law until Parliament approves a new oil law to regulate the international oil companies' work and share Iraq's oil resources among the country's Shiites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds.

** This report includes material from The Associated Press.

Iraqi oil, by the numbers

570,000: barrels per day installed refinery capacity.
1.9 million: barrels per day exported.
2.4 million: barrels per day now produced.
2.7 million: barrels per day production target for this year.
6 million: barrels per day production target for 2015.
115 billion: Iraq's proven oil reserves in barrels; last updated in 2001.

PUKmedia :: English - Short-Term Oil Deals Being Sought