Thread: Archive News - Iraqi Dinar Think Tank - 06/05/09 - 04/09/09

Oil Minister, denies that the first round of licensing is the process of sale of Iraqi oil

The Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani, of the existence of the development of oil fields in Rumaila and Zubair and West Qurna fields, the first stage of Maysan, Kirkuk and Bai Hassan fields in addition to the cane fields of the gas field and the field Mansourieh.

Shahristani said in a statement singled out by the reporter we tried to cover the oil fields north and south and east and west in the first licensing round and this round had been prepared since the beginning of 2008 where we started the registration of companies wishing to operate in Iraq and the development of fields through provide the requested documents We imposed a condition that many things have to increase production capacity and the training of local staff and building the infrastructure of Iraq, in addition to financial and legal aspects indicating that among the 120 had been accepted by 35 companies from different nationalities, as the efficiency and financial strength.

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Shahristani: contracts involving oil, which is not presented to the Parliament

He's oil minister Hussain al-Shahristani, the oil contracts that is not related to matters that need to be submitted to the Parliament and proceed with the law as authoritatively stated in the Constitution.

Shahristani said at a press conference held in Baghdad, that the equipment used for oil exploration are the property of the Iraqi people during the entry into Iraqi territory.

He pointed out that al-Shahristani, 120 companies applied to work in Iraq for oil extraction, and got an offer from 35 to 18 different nationalities, and those companies, including 7 U.S. and 4 Chinese companies, and 4 Japanese companies, and the other companies are Russian, French and German.

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Director of the North Oil: We have contributed to the study of oil contracts and we signed with international companies

The Director-General of the North Oil Company, on Saturday, said his company had contributed to the study and preparation of service contracts awarded to oil companies that will contract with the Ministry of Oil and the North Oil Company, indicating that the company supports the granting of licenses for the service contracts of global oil companies.

The Manna Abdullah Obeidi told (Voices of Iraq) that "the North Oil Company contributed to the study and preparation of contracts permits the service to oil companies by Maysan," indicating that the North Oil Company "is seeking for more than a year and a half years for the preparation of service contracts, according to studies prepared by the companies interested in the oil service contracts."

The Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani, has said recently that the Ministry of Oil will be the subject of oil licenses to the Cabinet for acceptance or rejection.

Obeidi said, "These contracts are public contracts and the oil ministry will send the terms of the contracts to the companies to study and find out what suits them, and we need to study, and we and the Ministry of Oil participated in all stages of the process of preparing such contracts."

Obeidi said: "We can not we contrast the desire of the Ministry of Oil in the signing of oil contracts," adding that "the oil ministry is working in accordance with the public interest and that the North Oil Company, an Iraqi Oil Ministry, and we believe that the signing of oil contracts contribute to the development of the Iraqi oil sector."

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Chairman of the House of Representatives will soon visit the State of Kuwait

Is scheduled to visit the Speaker of the House, Iyad Samarrai, Kuwait during the period from 5 to 8 of next July, at the invitation of the Kuwaiti National Assembly Speaker Jassem Al-Kharafi.

The newspaper reported, "the Kuwaiti newspaper" al-Samarrai said the official talks will be dealing with bilateral relations between the two brotherly countries and ways to strengthen ties between the two.

The newspaper said that during his brief Samarraie a lot of political and economic events in Kuwait.

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Shahristani: outreach efforts that Iraq is not oil country in the world

Detection and Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani, of the existence of substantial efforts to seek external parties that is not Iraq is an important oil in the world.

He said al-Shahristani told a news briefing on Sunday that his companies did not want to be the economic contracts through transparent competitive rounds before the eyes of citizens.

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He's sounding loopier by the article.

Alaa Saadun: Iraq needs to finance and banking reforms, a large

Examined the head of the Finance Committee of the House of Representatives Alaa Saadun with representatives from the U.S. Treasury the means of mutual cooperation between the two sides in the areas of finance and economic trend in the Iraq market open economy.

Saadun said in a statement to the Accordance Front, has received a copy of the Tigris Radio on Sunday that there are many obstacles stand in the achievement of open-market economy to the lack of mechanisms available to the Iraqi side to move in that direction.

Saadun said that Iraq needs to finance and banking reforms and the development of a large customs tariff law, tax law, as well as some other important laws.

Saadun said that the delegation put forward several proposals during the meeting, explaining that the Commission will consider these proposals and will take appropriate, including the financial situation of Iraq.

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CBI dollar sales see dramatic downturn

Demand for the dollar plunged dramatically in the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) auction on Sunday, coming down to $70 million compared to $152.680 million in the previous session.

“The demand hit $4 million in cash, covered by the bank at an exchange rate of 1,183 Iraqi dinars, and $66.100 million in foreign transfers outside the country, covered at an exchange rate of 1,173 Iraqi dinars per dollar,” according to a CBI news bulletin received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

None of the eight banks that participated in today’s session offered to sell dollars.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=115320

Oil ministry to announce winners of oil licenses

The Iraqi Ministry of Oil on Monday will unveil the winners of the first batch of oil licenses, according to a media spokesperson for the ministry.

“At 08:00 a.m. tomorrow (June 29), the ministry will draw lots to select the winning oil companies at al-Rasheed Hotel,” Spokesperson Isam Jihad told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

The contracts will be referred to the cabinet within six months after announcing the winners, Jihad explained.

A few days ago, Iraqi Minister of Oil Hussein al-Shahrestani said that his ministry would refer oil exploration licenses to the cabinet for consideration and decision.

The minister explained that the cabinet is entitled to approve or reject the licenses, and to submit them to the Parliament.

Shahrestani noted that the illegality of the oil contracts is due to the absence of a provision in the constitution concerning oil contracts.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=115322

Congress disagree on the priorities of the parliamentary sessions

Baghdad (Iraq News) said the representative of the United Iraqi Alliance bloc, said Hadi al-Hassani, "the most important benefits the Iraqi people to discuss the salary of the President of the Republic in the meetings of the Parliament and the politicization of things when the subjects made the most importance to least importance," while the Bloc MP for Fadhila Mohammadawi that Muhammad " find a legitimate cover for the salary of the President of the Republic does not affect the remaining laws and to determine the salary the President of the Republic and the work of the three leaders is in the interest of the Iraqi people, "

Hassani said in a telephone conversation with (Iraq News) "The time factor is very important when we lose a lot of time and Laws are disabled and therefore our art to lose money and reconstruction, investment, and everyone knows that the most important and what is important "

The deputy Iraqi Alliance bloc, "We need to electoral law and the law of distribution of financial resources and the law of the national oil company and the law of parties and the Iraqi people expected of us and giving us hope that the plant and joy in their hearts, and frustrate all schemes that want to destroy the country economically, politically and socially."

As for the Bloc MP Mohammed Fadhila Mohammadawi that "Thursday's meeting had been allocated only to discuss the salary of President of the Republic, was one of the paragraphs of the meeting and voted on various bills in the meeting and there was a series of laws were on the meeting, including the salary of the President of the Republic"

He also on the mass of virtue in a telephone conversation with the (Iraq News) "The citizen needs to laws important, but I believe that voting and a legitimate cover for the salary of the President of the Republic does not affect the remaining laws and to determine the salary the President of the Republic and the work of the three leaders is in the interest of the Iraqi people and we have to activate all laws, both belonging to the three presidencies and the citizen "

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Iraq to open up oil fields for first time in four decades

Iraq will this week unveil which foreign firms have won contracts to develop its oil and gas fields, nearly four decades after Saddam Hussein nationalised the country's energy infrastructure. The deals, likely to be announced live on t.elevision on June 29 and 30, will provide the government with much-needed revenue as it struggles to rebuild the country after three wars and 20 years of debilitating economic sanctions. Thirty-one companies have submitted bids to develop six giant oil fields and two gas fields. The oil deposits, holding known reserves of 43 billion barrels of crude, are in southern and northern Iraq while the gas concessions are west and northeast of Baghdad.

"Our principal objective is to increase our oil production from 2.4 million barrels per day to more than four million in the next five years," Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said in an interview with Iraqi public t.elevision.

Increasing production to that level will, according to him, pump an extra 1.7 trillion dollars into government coffers over the next 20 years. Shahristani has said that only 30 billion dollars of that sum will go to the companies that have extracted the oil.

"This is a huge amount that would finance infrastructure projects across Iraq -- schools, roads, airports, housing, hospitals," he said, insisting that the country would retain control over its oil reserves.

For energy firms, meanwhile, the appeal of the Iraqi contracts is the chance to plant a foot firmly in the country, the first time such an opportunity has been offered since Saddam nationalised the Iraq Petroleum Company in 1972.

"Thanks to sanctions and war, no company has wanted or been able to invest," Ruba Husari, an energy expert and the founder of the website iraqoilforum.com, explained.

"Today, the country is stable, in both its security and its institutions."

A source involved in the bidding, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described Iraq as "one of the rare countries in the world where the coming decades will bring real growth in production."

"It's a rare opportunity," the source said.

Not all energy companies are happy, though, with the terms of the contracts being offered by Baghdad. The foreign firms awarded deals to work here will have to partner with Iraqi government-owned firms, principally the South Oil Company (SOC), and share management of the fields despite fully financing their development. They will be paid a fixed fee per barrel, not a share of the profits, and the fee will only be paid once a production threshold set by the government is reached.

"This raises the question of the profitability of the contract," the source said. "The companies are the ones investing, but have a big problem with the fact that management will be shared."

But international energy giants cannot afford to ignore the contracts on offer.

"For foreign companies, this is like a first step," the source said. "They are saying, 'Let's accept these terms, even though they're not our preferred model, just to stay in the game, and hope conditions improve'."

In effect, foreign energy E.xecutives may well be targeting the next round of contracts to be offered next year, when Iraq will grant licences for exploitation of 16 other undeveloped fields. Domestic firms, including SOC, are furious, however, that contracts are being awarded to their foreign counterparts. Along with the Shiite Fadhila party, which lost control of the Ministry of Oil in 2006, the companies have launched a campaign against Shahristani. SOC insists it can fulfil the same objectives set for international companies, and in less time.

"The fields in question represent 85 percent of actual production and 50 percent of reserves," SOC chief E.xecutive Fayad Hassan Nima said. "A loss of control would lead to the death of national companies."

Jaber Khalifa Jaber, head of the Iraqi parliament's oil and gas committee and a Fadhila MP, said Iraq is under threat from an "economic occupation". "The companies will just share the oil between the Americans, the French, the British and the Japanese ... just like the Sykes-Picot agreement," he told AFP, referring to the Anglo-French accord that divided up influence in the Middle East in 1916.

http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm/sidAN...%204%20Decades