Thread: Archive Latest News - Think Tank - 15/04/08 - 26/08/08

Originally Posted by Seaview

Iraq earmarks $8 million for new state oil company

Iraq's government says it will allocate about $8 million for a fourth state-run oil company.

Saturday's statement by the government says Maysan Oil Company will manage operations to explore, develop, produce and export oil and gas in the Maysan province.

The new company will be formed by reorganizing the Maysan Oil and Gas Commission after splitting it from the Basra-based Southern Oil Company.

The plan must be approved by parliament and then ratified by Iraq's presidential council.

Maysan is located about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad.

News from The Associated Press

Update........

Iraq establishes new oil company

The Iraqi government is to establish a new oil company with a proposed capital of more than 9.5 billion Iraqi dinars (USD 7.9 million) and converting Maysan oil fields into a public company and disassociating it from the South Oil CompanySouth Oil Company

In a statement to KUNA, Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein Al-Shahrastani said that the cabinet approved the establishment of the oil company in the governorate of Maysan under the name (Maysan Oil Company).

"It would be tasked to develop the fields and production in the province," Al-Shahrastani said, noting that the Oil Ministry had submitted a proposal to the cabinet on that regard, which received government blessing.


Al-Shahrastani further noted that the Iraqi government would follow a new policy to establish similar oil companies in each province "if we succeeded in developing the fields available in those provinces, with a target production figure of 100,000 barrels per day."
On his part, government spokesman Ali Al-Dabbagh told KUNA that the cabinet agreed, at its session two day ago, convert the Authority of Fields of Maysan into a public company.

Al-Dabbagh pointed out that the diversion of activities in the vast oil-rich region, as well as future development of recently-discovered non-productive fields and the completion of exploitation projects of associated gas, which now burns in vain, required the presence of an integrated and effective structure such as the public company, so as to intensively focus on such project.

The spokesman hoped that establishing the company would lead to implementing mechanisms required for the oil drilling sector in the province, which had been neglected and marginalized for decades.

The company would also be tasked with the export of oil through the ports of Basra and setting up a refinery in Maysan for processing crude oil, Al-Dabbagh added, noting that the company would also coordinate with international companies to upgrade undeveloped and semi-developed fields, with the aim of increasing production capacity in coordination with the Oil Ministry.

He concluded by saying that other objectives of the company was to increase its production level in the next five years to reach 360,000 barrels a day.

Maysan is located about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad and includes some of Iraq's most important oil and gas fields.

Iraq establishes new oil company - Middle East News

Originally Posted by Seaview

Slightly off topic - but thought it was interesting

Report on global wealth .. 79 thousand wealthy Emirati and Saudi 101 thousand worth an estimated $ 273 billion

In A twelfth report of the richness of the World, was released by the companies Merrill Lynch and Kabjeemenye. The number of rich people in the world by 6 percent in 2007 to $ 10.1 million wealthy, while the number of older wealthy by 8.8 percent. The report pointed out that for the first time since the start of issue, exceeding the average value of individual wealth threshold of four million, and the rich Middle East number has increased by 15.6 percent while the proportion of wealth rose 17.5 percent. The report is expected to rise to the level of global wealth to $ 59.1 trillion in the year 2012, the rate of annual increase of up to 7.7 percent.

According to the report, the Middle East region has achieved outstanding growth in the number of wealthy, where the very high oil prices enhanced rate hit 57.2 percent from sales of crude oil futures to increase the growth rate of 15.6 percent in the Middle East. Emerged Middle East economic vitality through Continued exposure, more than any other area of commercial real estate investment amounted to rate 33 percent of the affluent allocations for this category of assets. The report said that a number of rich people in the United Arab Emirates in 2007 amounted to 79 thousand wealthy, compared to 68 thousand in 2006, This means that last year witnessed increasing number of wealthy EMIRIAN 11 thousand wealthy, and the total worth of $ 91 billion consolidated. The number of wealthy Saudis have risen from 90 thousand wealthy in 2006 to 101 thousand in 2007 to reach the Standard worth 182 billion dollars.

ÌÑíÏÉ ÇáãÏì - Ýí ÊÞÑíÑ Úä ÇáËÑÇÁ ÇáÚÇáãí ..79 ÃáÝ ËÑí ÅãÇÑÇÊí æ101 ÃáÝ ÓÚæÏí ËÑæÇÊåã ÊÞÏÑ ÈÜ 273 ãáíÇÑ ÏæáÇÑ

Did it say if they are buying Dinars?

Funny,

No, in Iraq ministers are stealing dinar, they don't have to purchase them, but outside of Iraq, many are loading up, so we shall see. One thing for certain, with current oil investment activity, sooner or later Iraqi's will rank up there with the wealthiest in middle east, tick tock, every day we get closer.

Originally Posted by flockstar

Did it say if they are buying Dinars?

Very good...

You say you don't own dinar - so thanks for taking the time to read the News Section.....

Arab Parliament Rejects Iraqi-US Agreement

The Transitional Arab Parliament held a session yesterday. It was devoted to discuss the Arab common work and to find solutions to the differences between the Arabs. The Parliament urged the Iraqis to stick to Iraq’s National Unity.

The Arab Parliament also called the Arab States and Iraq’s Neighbor states to help and support Iraq in order to preserve its National Unity and Regional Sovereignty also to end the foreign presence on its territories. It emphasized its rejection to the Iraqi-US Strategic Agreement.

The Session was chaired by Muhammad Jassim al-Sager and also attended by the Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Musa.

PUKmedia :: English - Arab Parliament Rejects Iraqi-US Agreement

Parliament demands oversight of oil deals

The Iraqi parliament has asked the Oil Ministry to send draft oil deals to legislators for approval before they are signed.

The request was made formally by the parliamentary gas and oil committee which oversees performance of the country’s energy sector, currently almost the sole earner of hard cash.

The committee’s deputy head, Abdulhadi al-Hassani, said legally the ministry was under obligation to do so since the parliament has not yet passed the draft oil and gas law.

But it is not clear whether the ministry would heed the parliament’s request.

Iraqi Kurds say they are not under Baghdad parliament’s jurisdiction and have taken matters into their own hands as far as oil deals with foreign firms are concerned.

The demand comes amid reports that the ministry has signed six deals with six oil majors to develop currently producing fields.

Hassani said Iraqi legislators wanted to have a say in any deals to ensure that they followed the standard procedures of competition and transparency.

The parliament has summoned Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani for questioning.

Hassani said Shahristani would appear before the deputies on Wednesday.

The government is not denying or confirming reports that the deals it says it is signing have passed through proper procedures.

Shahristani would only say the deals with Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP – original partners in the nationalized Iraq Petroleum Company or the IPC – as well as the U.S. Chevron are service contracts.

He says development contracts with regard to giant non-producing fields will be open to proper bidding procedures.

Iraqi authorities in Baghdad and Arabil – the seat of the Kurdish regional government – are apparently in a rush to sign as many deals as possible.

The Kurds have so far signed 17 such deals with foreign firms despite criticism from the central government in Baghdad.

The Oil Ministry says 35 foreign firms have won deals to service and develop oil fields.

Iraq’s oil riches, one of the largest in the world, have turned into a divisive issue among disparate Iraqi ethnic and sectarian groups which have failed to agree on how to distribute their returns once they are developed.

http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2008-06-28\kurd.htm

Demand for the dollar slumps on Sunday

Demand for the dollar was significantly lower in the Iraqi Central Bank's auction on Sunday, reaching $32.735 million compared to $67.700 million on Thursday.

"The demand hit $12.055 million in cash and $20.680 million in foreign transfers outside the country, all covered by the bank at an exchange rate of 1,196 Iraqi dinars per dollar," according to the central bank's daily bulletin, which was received by Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI).
None of the 12 banks that participated in the auction offered to sell dollars.

The Iraqi Central Bank runs a daily auction from Sunday to Thursday.

Aswat Aliraq

Prime Minister of Iraqi Kurdistan says it will not cancel oil contract

Barzani refused bared Prime Minister of Iraqi Kurdistan on Saturday invitations from the central government of Iraq to cancel the disputed oil contracts with foreign companies, describing the proposed phasing such as "dreamers."

Having returned to the area Barzani's Kurdistan autonomous after several days of talks with Baghdad were aimed in part to resolve the dispute over the oil bill. It seems that those talks did not yield anything but reciprocal promises to continue talks on the draft law Struggler.

The Iraqi Cabinet approved a draft law of oil in February but was not approved by the parliament because of disagreements between the Iraqi and Kristin Baghdad on who controls the reserves and contracts.

Among the differences and agreements signed by the Kurdistan region with foreign energy companies on their own initiative. Baghdad and described those agreements as illegal and will not recognize them.

He said Barzani told reporters in the city of Arbil, "It is legitimate contracts and the approval of the constitution and meet international standards. No power in Baghdad could cancel these contracts. It is calling for cancellation of dreamers."

http://66.102.9.104/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&langpair=ar%7Cen&u=http://wasatonline.com/index.php%3Foption%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26i d%3D9232%26Itemid%3D101&prev=/language_tools

G8 Renews Its Support for Iraqi Government

Foreign Ministers of the Group of Eight (G8) condemned the terrorist operations and ethnic violence operations that happened in Iraq. This condemnation came in the final statement of the G8 meeting in Japan.

The ministers mentioned in their statement that they were agreed to support the Iraqi government in its war against terrorists and ethnic threats.

The statement also called Iraq’s neighboring countries to carry out their role to achieve security and stability, and help Iraq to be reconstructed.

PUKmedia :: English - G8 Renews Its Support for Iraqi Government

National Reconciliation Conference to Be Held in Baghdad

An important national reconciliation conference is going to be held in Baghdad on next Saturday July 5th, with the participation of figures from outside the political process. This conference is considered as completion of the conferences of Helsinki and Cairo.

Iraqi politicians recently agreed on holding all the coming national reconciliation conferences inside Iraq, in a step to gather all the Iraqis in Baghdad City.

Well-informed sources mentioned that Baathists figures, who are not involved in killing Iraqi people, are going to participate in the conference.

It’s worth mentioning that PM Nouri al-Maliki launched the “Project of National Reconciliation” in 2006, which achieved big successes and prevented Iraq from being involved in a civilian war.

PUKmedia :: English - National Reconciliation Conference to Be Held in Baghdad