Thread: Kurdistan Economy

Interview - Iraq Kurds says must have say on Kirkuk oil fields

The Kurdish authorities must be involved in decisions by the central government in Baghdad to award long-term service contracts for oil fields around the disputed city of Kirkuk, the region's oil minister said Monday.

The Kurdish Regional Government would "certainly" reject any deal signed between Baghdad and a private firm if it viewed it as a "lousy agreement", KRG natural resources minister Ashti Hawrami said.

"The people who matter must be consulted, and we expect to be absolutely consulted," Hawrami told Reuters.

"I will say no company will sign an agreement without coming to the KRG. They have to sit down with us and say 'Is this OK?'. If I am not party to the agreement up front, I don't know what it is."

Hawrami added: "If it's a lousy service agreement, I would certainly reject it, because we want to maximise returns for the Iraqi people." Iraq, desperate to breathe life into flagging oil exports as it confronts a deep budget gap due to low crude prices, has offered up long-term service contracts to many of its prized oil fields in two rounds of tenders.

The first round is due to be decided at the end of June. The oil fields around Kirkuk, a northern city that Kurds claim as their ancestral capital and which they want wrapped into their semi-autonomous northern enclave, are included in that round.

The Kurdish authorities have sparred with the Shi'ite Arab-led government in Baghdad over the future of Kirkuk and other disputed territories, and in particular over oil resources and independent contracts that the KRG has signed with private oil firms to exploit fields within its enclave.

U.S. officials fear Kurd-Arab tensions could lead to Iraq's next round of violence just as the sectarian warfare and insurgency unleashed by the 2003 U.S.-led invasion are receding.

"There is a practical issue. To work in a Kirkuk field ... requires our protection. Most of it is under our security protection," Hawrami said.

"So how can a company come work there, if we are not partner to agreement and expect us to protect them?"

http://pukmedia.com/english/index.ph...11337&Itemid=1

Legal Expert: decisions of the Parliament of Kurdistan is considered illegal after the extension of his

Legal expert, and an independent member of Parliament, Dr. Nuri Talabani, Kurdistan legal decisions issued by the Kurdish parliament, after the decision to extend the duration of the law.

Talabani said in a statement to the press section at the National Center of Information, the absence of a constitution of the Territory Parliament can only amend the law, too, are the laws passed by the window and legal action until the next parliamentary elections. The Parliament of Kurdistan can continue its work until the next election.

The statement came after several members said in the Parliament of Kurdistan, the inability of the parliament issued a law by the end of the legal on the Fourth of June. For her part, MP for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan Cuestan Mohammed: "We do not see the legitimacy of the laws passed by Parliament after the end of a legal, because we are the representatives of the people for four years only."

A number of members of Parliament of the Kurdistan region intend to apply to the Presidency of the parliament on the "illegal" to make laws in the extended period.

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Kurdish parliament discusses 2009 budget on Wednesday

The Kurdistan’s region parliament will discuss the Kurdistan region’s 2009 budget during its session on Wednesday, the media advisor of the parliament’s speaker said Tuesday.

“The parliament will hold a regular session on Wednesday (June 10) to discuss the region’s 2009 budget,” Tareq al-Johar told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, noting that special committees will present their reports on the budget.

“Kurdish Finance Minister, Baez Talabani, will attend the session,” he added.

The 2009 general budget of the Kurdistan region is 283.8 trillion Iraqi dinars, which is 17 percent of the general budget of Iraq.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=114362

Hawrami: Foreign companies remain interested in signing oil deals in Kurdistan region

Ashti Hawrami, KRG minister of natural resources said “foreign companies remain interested in signing oil deals in Kurdistan region, despite the Iraqi oil minister continuing to declare the contracts illegal.”

The Iraqi government at the beginning of the month allowed crude to start being exported from fields in the Kurdish region.

Hawrami added “al-Shahristani’s comments did not represent the views of the federal government and the Iraqi parliament. The foreign companies are interested to invest in Kurdistan region.”

"After we started exports, six companies from three more countries had shown interest to carry out oil business in Kurdistan region, because of trust in the Iraqi law," Hawrami told Reuters in an interview. He declined to name the companies.

http://pukmedia.com/english/index.ph...11561&Itemid=1

Connecting Kurdistan region banks with Baghdad

Dilshad Othman, the undersecretary of KRG ministry of finance said in a press statement “there are two central banks in Erbil and Sulaimani, which are currently connected to Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). We are working to connect these banks with the Central Bank of Iraq according to the Iraqi government demand.”

“This step came because these banks are originally branches of the Iraqi bank. The fund policy is the authority of the federal government and not KRG”, he added.

On Wednesday June 10th, Kurdistan region parliament held a session to discuss the budget project. In this session, Othman emphasized this step and said “connecting the central banks in Kurdistan region with the central bank in Baghdad is for the interest of Kurdistan region”.

http://pukmedia.com/english/index.ph...11562&Itemid=1

Originally Posted by Seaview

Connecting Kurdistan region banks with Baghdad

Dilshad Othman, the undersecretary of KRG ministry of finance said in a press statement “there are two central banks in Erbil and Sulaimani, which are currently connected to Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). We are working to connect these banks with the Central Bank of Iraq according to the Iraqi government demand.”

“This step came because these banks are originally branches of the Iraqi bank. The fund policy is the authority of the federal government and not KRG”, he added.

On Wednesday June 10th, Kurdistan region parliament held a session to discuss the budget project. In this session, Othman emphasized this step and said “connecting the central banks in Kurdistan region with the central bank in Baghdad is for the interest of Kurdistan region”.

http://pukmedia.com/english/index.ph...11562&Itemid=1

Another version of this article

the link between the bank and the banks of Baghdad Region

The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance in the Kurdistan region Dlhad Osman said that the bank in the region of Arbil and Sulaymaniyah Baghdad Sertbtan banks.

Osman said the Kurdistan News Agency (Akaniwz) that "there are central banks in Erbil and Sulaimaniya, which are now linked to the government of the Kurdistan region, but now, at the request of the Iraqi government are working to link the two banks the Central Bank of Iraq." Othman said: "This step comes from the premise that banks are already branches of the Bank of Iraq, because monetary policy is the prerogative of the central government, not the Kurdistan Regional Government, and for this we are now working to link the two banks the Central Bank of Iraq".

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The export of oil gives the status of Iraq's Kurdistan advanced producer

Head of the Department of Economics at the University of Salahuddin in Arbil, said Mohammed Salman Berwari export of oil from the Kurdistan region of Iraq could give the region a strategic position in the paramount importance of energy in the world.

He Berwari told a news briefing on Friday that significant changes in the near term, as the region received only 17 percent of the proceeds.

Berwari felt the need to be able to secure the territorial requirements of the continuation of basic infrastructure in the oil sector, in terms of production and export and to build relationships and bridges of trust with neighboring countries.

He pointed out that the export will impact on the long-term rise in living standards by creating new job opportunities, which could be available by the financial capacity of the Government in the public or private.

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Heritage nets £132m for Kurdistan fields raises £132m

Heritage Oil raised £132m on Monday to accelerate the development of its fields in Iraqi Kurdistan, in another sign of the company's confidence that controversies surrounding the autonomous region's oil licences will fade away. Heritage placed 25.4m new shares - slightly less than 10 per cent of its share capital - at 520p a share, a 3 per cent premium to its closing price on Friday.

The fundraising was also the latest sign of renewed financial activity in the junior oil sector, as the benchmark oil price hovers at about $70 a barrel. Heritage's share placing comes less than a week after it proposed a $5.5bn (£3.4bn) merger with Genel Energy, the privately held Turkish oil company that is its joint venture partner developing oil fields in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The merger would create a "regional giant", said Paul Atherton, Heritage finance director, last week, in an area whose oil wealth has been unexploited compared with Iranian fields across the region's border as well as Iraqi fields to the south.

The most recent cause of this underdevelopment was disagreement between Iraq's central government and Kurdistan's regional government about the legality of oil licences. An apparent political breakthrough allowed limited amounts of oil to start being exported from the region on June 1.

However, on June 10, Hussain Shahristani, Iraq's oil minister, reaffirmed that some oil licences granted by Kurdistan were illegal until ratified by Baghdad. Political differences between the two governments have also held up resolution over how the operators of producing oil fields in Iraqi Kurdistan will be paid.

This is the main question hanging over oil investment in the region, say analysts, despite the buzz of investor interest that has accompanied the Heritage-Genel merger proposal and its implication of incipient consolidation among operators in the region.

"I am confident that the enlarged group will be paid for the oil it exports from Kurdistan," Mr Atherton said yesterday, referring to the new company whose merger he expects will be approved in the third quarter of this year. Heritage said the funds might be invested in building a pipeline that would connect the Iraqi Kurdistan's Miran and Taq Taq fields with the main export pipeline now carrying 100,000 barrels a day of crude oil from Kurdistan. The funds will also help accelerate oil exploration in Uganda, where Heritage and Tullow Oil, its joint venture partner, have struck oil at almost 20 drilling sites around Lake Albert.
Heritage Oil shares rose 8 per cent to 546p, adding to a recent rally that has seen the price more than double this year.

http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm/sid20...s%20Pounds132m

Kurdish parliament approves 2009 budget

The Kurdish parliament approved the region's 2009 general budget on Tuesday by a majority vote, according to a statement of the parliament.

"The parliament held on Tuesday (June 19) its 19th regular session under Speaker Adnan al-Mufti to discuss the 2009 budget," said the statement received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

"The parliament approved the 2009 budget draft law after presenting all its articles by a majority vote," it added.

"The parliament's speaker presented recommendations to be added to the budget bill, including improving the political prisoners' conditions and adopting transparency regarding the oil revenues issue," the statement noted.

The 2009 general budget of the Kurdistan region is 283.8 trillion Iraqi dinars, which is 17 percent of the general budget of Iraq.

http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm/sidZA...09%20budget%20

Qubad Talabani: al-Shahristani, has no authority for the approval of oil contracts

Description representative of the Government of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region in the United States and Canada Qubad Talabani oil contracts signed by the Government of the Territory with the oil companies as "sound and legal."

Talabani said in a press statement published today, Thursday, The oil minister in the federal government does not have the authority to ratify the province's oil contracts, noting that the constitution is the primary source is the basic document handling and acceptable to the Government of the Territory, as he put it.

He explained that the export of oil through the oil fields in the region has become an easy process and if the availability of specialized capacity is possible to raise the ceiling on oil production to ensure the export of one million barrels of oil a day from those fields.

He added that the provincial government have so far signed more than two dozen contracts with 30 companies, including oil and gas companies are known, indicating that these contracts are consistent with the constitutional laws of Iraq.

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