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

10900 detainees released according to the Amnesty Law

10900 detainees were released since the implementation of the General Amnesty Law on February 2008 and until Monday, the official spokesperson of the Supreme Judicial Council said.

"This number is distributed throughout various places of Iraq," Judge Abdul-Sattar al-Berqdar told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI).

On February 2008, the Iraqi Parliament enacted the General Amnesty bill that allows the release of Iraqi detainees, according to certain terms and conditions, exclusively from Iraqi d****tion centers. The Iraqi Presidential Council ratified the Law on March 27, 2008, and it was implemented on the same month.

Al-Berqdar added, "Legal committees are still working, and until today have reexamined 15286 cases, and they identified 4386 cases among them of detainees not implied by the Amnesty Law."

He referred, "Last week, the Supreme Judicial Council issued new instructions regarding the Amnesty Law that order courts to facilitate the process."

"The instructions give priority to female and teenaged detainees, and attempt to include the maximum number of detainees in the amnesty procedure," Al-Berqdar asserted.

Aswat Aliraq

ICP insists to withdraw from INL

The Iraqi Communist Party (ICP) said on Monday that it will not retract its decision to withdraw from the Iraqi National List (INL) under former Premier Iyad Allawi.

"The party will not retract the decision," Hamied Majid Moussa, the party's secretary, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI), noting that a decision within this context will be issued after the party's central committee meeting.

"The ICP did not boycott the national reconciliation conference held in Baghdad last week, but the INL did," he added.

Moussa did not provide further details.

For his part, Ezzat al-Shabandar, MP from the INL, said "the list did not object to the withdrawal of the ICP," asserting that there are no negotiations between the two sides on this issue.

Hamid Moussa had said earlier this month "a row between the ICP representatives and those of the INL might lead to the withdrawal of the communists from the bloc."

"The INL platform was not the one agreed upon when we first formed the parliamentary bloc," Moussa said, hinting at his party's withdrawal. He also accused the INL of "having political attitudes from a huge number of the list members."

He said the INL ignored remarks submitted by the (communist) party's representatives, adding his party has been continuing with the INL to give it more time for self-reform and return to the right track."

On his part, Osama al-Nujaifi, a key INL lawmaker, said "the withdrawal of the communist party from the INL has been settled pending negotiations."

"The communist party has only two seats (in the bloc) and its withdrawal would make no significant change but its withdrawal would be deplorable," said Nujaifi.

The INL, led by the former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, holds 25 out of a total 275 seats in the Iraqi Parliament. Several INL members quit the bloc over differences on bills voted on in the Parliament, as well as over political stances.

Aswat Aliraq

Iraq is making progress in supervising oil

An IMF official said that the control agency in the United Nations could not determine whether each Iraqi oil fund is used properly, but a significant progress has been made to improve transparency. He Bert Kewbins, one of two officials from the International Monetary Fund in the United Nations International Control and Consultant Body, said that more than $100 billion went to Iraq's oil fund since its foundation in 2003. He added, "Our goal is to be able to report that all oil revenues are used for the benefit of the Iraqi people, but because of the many defects in the war-torn country we were unable to report that. You do not simply control all of the oil revenues." Oil is the main source of Iraq for hard currency needed for reconstruction after years of destruction caused by the American invasion in 2003. The proceeds of oil sales go to the Iraqi Development Fund. Kewbins said that oil production in 2007 reached about two million barrels, three quarters of which were exported at a cost ranged between $25 billion and $30 billion annually. The largest part of the funds is used to support the budget in Iraq and it flows through the Ministry of Finance to the ministries under the review of the United Nations International. Kewbins was asked if the Body has faced corruption in its work and he said, "The short answer is yes. Under these circumstances, one expects that, but oil smuggling operations were reduced and control over the oil extracted from the ground was improved. The Security Council established the International Control and Consultant Body to supervise the management of natural wealth of Iraq. The Body comprises representatives of the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development and the World Bank.

http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=5723

Salaries of employees and retirees will be increased soon

The Finance Minister, Baqir Jabr Al-Zubaidi, announced on Thursday the near adoption of an Act to increase salaries and a new salary grading after approval from the premiership, and said after his meeting with the religious authority in Najaf, Mohammed Al-Yacoubi, that the political blocs in the Parliament had approved the law.

http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=5724

Iraq's stock exchange goes electronic

Iraq's rising prosperity is to be symbolically marked this week with the inauguration of a new stock exchange system in Baghdad.

The country's small band of traders are to mark the end of an era with the switch to electronic trading. It will be a milestone in the nation's recovery.

Under Saddam Hussein, the exchange was little more than a gambling hall, housed in premises resembling an old-fashioned souk. After the war it had a temporary home in a defunct Italian restaurant.

Now it stands in a sprawling villa in Baghdad's financial district, part school room with white boards marking trades, and part prison with iron bars protecting brokers from the clientele.

The revitalisation of the exchange comes as Iraq's economy begins to recover after five years of war and insurgency and decades of sanctions. High oil prices, a resumption of government spending and American military aid have combined to boost the economy by seven per cent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund, which is forecasting a prolonged boom.

Saddam's Ba'ath Party was a socialist movement that held state domination of the economy as a founding principle. As a result, service companies dominate with the likes of Baghdad Soft Drinks and the local Pepsi Cola bottler listed on the market.

Taha Salam, the stock exchange's chief executive, said the introduction of the new trading system is a celebration of survival.

"We have planned this for many years but faced many ups and downs," he said. "Iraq is a place where we have been hidden away from the world for far too long, but finally we are seeing some progress."

In 2003, a 24-year-old Republican graduate from Yale University, Jay Hallen, disastrously ordered a rewrite of Iraq's securities laws as a prelude to wave of privatisation that never happened, so no oil companies, large banks or heavy industry companies are listed on the market.

"There is a big state sector in Iraq and everybody can see it would be a very big boost for us to trade the shares of these companies," said Mr Salam.

"Unfortunately given the feelings of the people it was not possible to complete the project."

http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=5725

Iraq's oil ministry invites companies to bid on oil, gas development projects

Iraq's Oil Ministry said Sunday that it has invited local and international oil companies to bid for contracts including one to develop a natural gas field in a Sunni area in the west of the country.

The ministry has set a deadline of April 24 for companies to submit detailed plans to help develop the Akkas gas field, located in the former Sunni insurgent stronghold of Anbar province, the ministry said on its Web site.

The Akkas field has estimated reserves of more than 2.15 trillion cubic feet (60 billion cubic meters).

Most of the country's vast petroleum wealth is located in the Kurdish north and the Shiite south. Development of the Akkas field could boost the economy in Sunni areas, where support for the government remains tenuous.

Companies interested in submitting a detailed design, which would include a procurement of all equipment and required materials for the western province's Akkas gas field, must meet the ministry's deadline of April 24, the ministry said on its Web site.

Early this year, the ministry said it was negotiating with Royal Dutch Shell PLC to conduct output tests for the field which has five wells that are ready to be interconnected.

It could produce up to 50 million cubic feet a day as a first stage which could be increased to 500 million cubic feet a day at later stages that planned be pumped through Syria to consumers in Europe.

In a separate tender, the ministry has also invited companies to submit detailed engineering study and procurement of equipment and materials of two oil pipelines linking the Basra oil fields in southern Iraq with Iran's Abadan refinery.

The project's aim is to export crude oil and import multi-products through Shatt-al-Arab waterway, the ministry said.

Offers must be submitted no later than 0900 GMT of April 24.

Iraq's Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani earlier said the crude pipeline would pump some 100,000 barrels a day of Basra Light to Iran, Dow Jones Newswires reported. Basra crude would be sold to Iran in accordance with international oil prices, he added.

When the two countries signed the agreement last year, they didn't spell out costs of the two pipelines, which will each be between 50 kilometers and 75 kilometers long. However, they said the two pipelines would be financed by a $1 billion loan granted by Tehran to Baghdad earlier this year.

Iraq has the world's third-largest oil reserves with an estimated 115 billion barrels, and also sits on an estimated 112 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves.

http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=5726

Russia may lose competition for oil investment in Iraq

President of the International Committee in the Russian Federal Council, Mikhail Margilov, announced at a meeting in the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry on the "round table" devoted to the question of Russian business reputation abroad, that Russia may lose the competition for the right to participate in exploiting Iraqi oilfields.

Member of the Russian Parliament said it is obvious that soon shares to invest in Iraqi fields will be distributed and we may come out of this competition empty handed because we do not have active contacts with the political forces in Iraq. He believes that Russian business is inactive as required in the foreign arena; especially that Russian companies' information sites on the internet are the worst in Europe.

The Russian parliamentary member said, "we often lose, not because we are technology or commercially weak, but because of lack of knowledge of the properties of countries and regions where we intend to work."

http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=5727

(Ittisa****) starts its services in both Baghdad and Basrah

The company of Ittisa**** for fixed ******** communications and internet services started its work in each of Baghdad and Basrah and had prepared a plan to cover all the country with its network with the beginning of next year. The official spokesman of the company said at a press conference last week that the company intends to launch its services in both Basrah and Baghdad during the first quarter of this year and cover most of the southern region during the second quarter, as well as planning to cover all the cities of Iraq, except Kurdistan region at the end of this year, then it will open means of cooperation with the telecommunications networks in Kurdistan region to facilitate the exchange of telecommunications services in all the cities of Iraq.

The company of Ittisa**** Across Iraq is an Iraqi company for fixed ******** telecommunications and internet services; it had announced its provision of communications services with high technical quality based on the third-generation cdma2000 techniques aimed at achieving a quantum leap in communications and internet service, which will be positively reflected on the social stability and will raise economic level, where local and international services will be provided in addition to the SMS, , call waiting and conversion, voice mail and other services at competitive prices.

http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=5728

Iraq, china: New Oil Deals

Iraq and China are close to concluding negotiations on a 1.2-billion-dollar oil contract that was originally agreed to in 1997 under Saddam Hussein’s government, an Iraqi Oil Ministry official has said.

The state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) signed the deal to develop the billion-barrel Al-Ahdab oilfield in the midst of UN sanctions that barred direct dealings with Iraq’s oil industry.

Beijing was waiting for sanctions to end when the US invasion in 2003 overthrew Saddam’s government. The two countries restarted talks in October 2006.

“We are expecting that the next round of discussions, due to be held in April, will finish the negotiations”, the official said on condition of anonymity.

According to the official, the Iraqi government presented proposals to amend the original production-sharing contract, with the country’s new oil and gas law has bogged down in its fractious Parliament.

Iraq is planning to increase crude oil output to three million barrels a day by the end of 2008 from the current 2.5 million barrels a day by employing foreign companies’ expertise as security improves.

The war-torn country also is targeting production of 4.5 million barrels a day by end of 2013. Iraq sits on the world’s third-largest oil reserves, totaling more than 115 billion barrels.

Another oil official said that Iraq’s cabinet had given the nod to the Oil Ministry to sign agreements with international oil companies to help increase the country’s crude output.

The two-year deals, known as technical support agreements are designed to develop five producing fields that would add 500,000 barrels per day to the country’s 2.4 million barrels per day output.

iraq, china: New oil deals

Update......

Iraq opens more oil and gas projects for bids

Iraq's Oil Ministry said yesterday that it has invited local and international oil companies to bid for contracts including one to develop a natural gasfield in the west of the country.

The ministry has set a deadline of April 24 for companies to submit detailed plans to help develop the Akkas gasfield, located in the former insurgent stronghold of Anbar province, the ministry said on its website.

The Akkas field has estimated reserves of more than 2.15 trillion cubic feet (60 billion cubic metres). Most of the country's vast petroleum wealth is located in the north and the south. Development of the Akkas field could boost the economy in the areas, where support for the government remains tenuous.

Detailed design

Companies interested in submitting a detailed design, which would include a procurement of all equipment and required materials for the western province's Akkas gasfield, must meet the ministry's deadline of April 24, the ministry said on its website. Early this year, the ministry said it was negotiating with Royal Dutch Shell to conduct output tests for the field which has five wells that are ready to be interconnected.
It could produce up to 50 million cubic feet a day as a first stage which could be increased to 500 million cubic feet a day at later stages that planned be pumped through Syria to consumers in Europe.

In a separate tender, the ministry has also invited companies to submit detailed engineering study and procurement of equipment and materials of two oil pipelines linking the Basra oil fields in southern Iraq with Iran's Abadan refinery.

The project's aim is to export crude oil and import multi-products through Shatt Al Arab waterway, the ministry said.

Deadline

Offers must be submitted no later than 0900 GMT on April 24.

Iraq's Oil Minister Hussain Al Shahristani earlier said the crude pipeline would pump some 100,000 barrels a day of Basra Light to Iran, Dow Jones News-wires reported. Basra crude would be sold to Iran in accordance with international oil prices, he added.

When the two countries signed the agreement last year, they didn't spell out costs of the two pipelines, which will each be between 50 kilometres and 75 kilometers long.

However, they said the two pipelines would be financed by a $1 billion loan granted by Tehran to Baghdad earlier this year. Iraq has the world's third-largest oil reserves with an estimated 115 billion barrels.

Gulfnews: Iraq opens more oil and gas projects for bids