Thread: Iraq/Dinar News. 09/05 to 01/14/07

NOVEMBER 20, 2006 -- Iraq Telecommunications & Post Corporation (ITPC), Iraq's sole fixed-line operator, has awarded Nortel (search for Nortel) a $20 million contract to build a nationwide optical backbone to deliver high-quality high-bandwidth data, video, and multimedia services for personal and business communications. Nortel was selected by ITPC as the prime contractor for the Iraq national optical backbone following a public tender process.

"This national project is vitally important to the many telecommunications projects underway that will help rebuild the capabilities of the Iraqi society and economy," said H.E. Mohamed Allawi, Iraq Minister of Communications. "We selected Nortel's advanced networking technology as the right foundation for Iraqi telecommunications and are confident that the improved communications made possible by this network will help accelerate the reconstruction of our country."

"Restoring and improving countrywide communications is vital for the reconstruction of Iraq," said Simon Beard, director of Middle East business development, Nortel EMEA. "This contract is testament to Nortel's successful record of DWDM transmission projects in Iraq since 2004 and our continuing commitment to proactively partner with ITPC in its efforts to rebuild Iraqi communications."

The new network will link to the ITPC's Iraq South Ring DWDM network -- built by Nortel in 2004 as part of the US aid-funded Iraq reconstruction program. The network delivers broadband optical services between Baghdad and Basra.

Under the terms of the contract, Nortel will supply a national optical backbone network that covers 5,000 km and includes 35 major cities. The network will be constructed using Nortel's next-generation DWDM equipment including Common Photonic Layer (CPL), Optical Multiservice Edge (OME) 6500 terminals with electronic dispersion management technology and Optical Network Manager for simplifying field operations. The resilient network will comprise seven interlocking rings providing a bandwidth capacity of up to 160 Gbits/sec per ring.

Lightwave - Nortel signs Iraq deal

Originally Posted by worf

Thanks I appreciate your reply. I would love to be wrong in my lower r/v amount... prove me wrong..... Please???

worf

Hi Worf,

I hope I am right as that would make us a very wealthy. Of course none of us know what is really going to happen. It would make sense ( Of Course we are talkinfg about Iraq.)that they come in fairly high just to curve speculation as when they implement article 8, FIL and HCL they will be fully convertible and open for big business. Why give your amazing resources away for cheap. I think they really are very smart cookies they are making sure they get all the debt relief in position and as much Dinar back into the Country so they can open big. This I believe is a staged process making the World believe we are in great need of help give us debt relief and are Dinars back. Then they are going to bring all of Saddam's treasure from Switzerland and other places he stashed it and be probably the wealthiest County in the World in less than 5 years.

I mean Saddam's Gold toilet must be an absolute fortune especially if you put it on Ebay.

Dinar-Excited

KIRKUK, Iraq, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Iraq's Oil Ministry says attacks have virtually closed a major oil pipeline, further hampering production in the struggling oil sector.

Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said the pipeline from Kirkuk to Turkey, once a major avenue for exporting oil and raising revenue, can no longer be used, Azzaman reports.

Iraq has some of the largest oil deposits in the world but the violence that has grasped the country after the U.S.-led invasion has seen oil infrastructure as a major tactical target.

The pipeline was used to funnel crude from the oil-rich Kirkuk and other northern regions to refineries and then ports in Turkey. It also provided a mutual link to ports and oil fields in the southern Iraq region.

Iraqi oil production is less than 2 million barrels per day, with ever-fluctuating performance, well below the 2.6 million barrel level before the war.

The oil infrastructure was overworked and ill-maintained under Saddam Hussein, but has been further hurt by war, despite reconstruction efforts.

Electricity is unreliable, yet necessary to power refineries, for example.

And especially in the north, where the Kurdistan Regional Government has enjoyed semi-autonomy since the early 1990s and is pushing hard to increase its boundary and control over its oil, sabotage is common.

Kirkuk, an historically Kurdish city but officially outside the KRG, sits atop 11 billion barrels of reserves. The KRG is leading a push to retake control via a citizen referendum.

But with 96 percent of the Iraqi budget coming from oil revenue and a possibly competing with regional autonomy and control over their own resources, attacks on the pipeline is being blamed on Sunni insurgents who have little oil resources.

And without the pipeline Iraq's oil exports will come from the Shiite-controlled south, where inviting within the Iraqi majority group is beginning to focus more on the oil there.

United Press International - Energy - Iraq northern pipeline out of commission

As the revaluation of the IQD continues so is the IQD's increase in purchasing power. At some point they're going to have to release the fils. Rounding off the prices of goods into whole numbers is not going to work anymore. Either the seller is going to lose out or the buyer is going to lose out. They need smaller denoms for change. I think that point in time is near.

Genel Enerji A.S. (Genel), part of the Cukurova Group, and Addax Petroleum Corporation on Monday reported flow test results for the recently drilled TT-04 well, the first well on the Taq Taq field drilled by Taq Taq Operating Company (TTOPCO), the joint venture company formed by Genel and Addax Petroleum to carry out the petroleum operations in the Taq Taq license area in northern Iraq.

Worldwide Practical Petroleum Reservoir Engineering Methods, 2nd Edition
Three reservoir intervals were tested separately and flowed at anaggregate rate of 29,790 bbls/d of light, 47 degrees API oil with low gas oil ratio. The intervals tested were a 106-meter perforated interval in the Shiranish formation that flowed at a rate of 3,940 bbls/d, a 55-meter perforated interval in the Kometan formation that flowed at a rate of 12,930 bbls/d, and a 86-meter bare foot interval in the Qamchuga formation that flowed at a rate of 12,920 bbls/d. Oil flow rates from the three intervals are in a 64/64" choke size. In each instance, the flow rates were constrained by the limited capacity of the surface test facilities. Evaluation of these flow test results is ongoing.

Commenting on the results, Dr. Ashti Hawrami, the Minister of Natural Resources of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq, said; "This is a great achievement and we look forward to establishing our initial export of oil from the Taq Taq field in 2007. Additionally, we will be utilizing some of the oil resources to satisfy the local requirement for the refined products and power needs. We will continue our exploration campaign to achieve our export oil target of one million barrels per day of new oil from the Kurdistan Region over the next few years. This will make a significant contribution to the oil revenues of Iraq to be shared by all peoples of Iraq."

Commenting, Mehmet Sepil, Chief Executive Officer of Genel Enerji said: "We are very pleased with the test results of the TT-04 well. For the first time, a privately owned Turkish Oil Company is developing a major oil field. We believe that this project will make Genel Enerji a world-class exploration and production company in the international petroleum industry. This project will also generate wealth for the people of the Kurdistan Region and of Iraq while also helping to meet the urgent energy requirements of the region."

Commenting, Jean Claude Gandur, President and Chief Executive Officer of Addax Petroleum said: "This is a significant milestone for Addax Petroleum. The Taq Taq field has the potential to be a major source of reserves and production growth for the company. As demonstrated by these test results, the production potential of Taq Taq is truly significant and highlights the under-developed potential of the region. We believe that the Taq Taq field can deliver excellent value to the people of the Kurdistan Region and of Iraq and for our shareholders."

The TT-04 well is the first well drilled on the Taq Taq field, drilled using the TTOPCO-owned drilling rig and located some 500 meters from the TT-01 well, the Taq Taq field discovery well drilled in 1978. TT-04 was spudded in mid-May and reached a total depth of 2,286 meters in early September.

Interpretation of data acquired, including wireline static reservoir pressure data, indicate the presence of a significant and extensive fracture system and a single oil column in the Taq Taq field through the Shiranish, Kometan and Qamchuga formations in excess of 500 meters. The TT-04 well was the first of a three well drilling program by Genel and Addax Petroleum. The drilling of the second appraisal and development well, TT-05, is now in progress.

The Taq Taq field is located in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq some 60 kilometers northeast of Kirkuk, 85 kilometers northeast of Erbil and 120 northwest of Sulaimaniyah.

Genel Enerji A.S. is a Turkish registered company and owned by the Turkish Cukurova Group. The Cukurova Group is among Turkey's largest industrial and commercial conglomerates with numerous investments ranging from automotive, telecommunications, media, textiles, energy and information technology services.

Addax Petroleum is an international oil and gas exploration and production company with a strategic focus on Africa and the Middle East. Addax Petroleum is one of the largest independent oil producers in West Africa and has increased its crude oil production from an average of 8,800 barrels per day for 1998 to an average of approximately 91,500 barrels per day for the third quarter of 2006.

RIGZONE - Genel and Addax Report Results of Kurdistan Flow Test

Compiled by Daily Star staff
Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Iraq's premier said Monday he will not let country become a proxy battleground for Syria's differences with the United States, as Tehran called for a three-way summit with the Syrian and Iraqi presidents.

Amid the stepped up diplomacy, more than 100 deaths were reported since Sunday morning and gunmen attacked the convoy of a second Iraqi deputy health minister.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's comments to Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem came as the US military claimed that as many as 100 foreign fighters cross into Iraq from Syria every month.

"If Syria or any other state has differences with the United States, it's their own business," Maliki said.

"It should settle these differences, but not at our cost," the premier told a joint news conference with Moallem, the first Syrian official to visit Iraq since the US-led invasion of 2003.

But Moallem insisted that he was not in Iraq to "please the United States."

"I am nobody's godfather and not a mediator for the United States," he told a joint news conference after talks with powerful Iraqi Shiite Islamist leader Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim.

"In this current situation there is no dialogue between Syria and the United States," he said.

Maliki said Iraq aimed to improve its relationship with Syria, but that "this requires a strong desire from both the brother countries."

"What goes on in Iraq is a threat for everybody," he said. "The interest of Syria is to contribute in the stability of Iraq."

Maliki told Moallem that many of the terrorist attacks in Iraq are being planned in neighboring countries and that this must stop.

Moallem denied Syria wanted to see instability grip its eastern neighbor.

"Danger to Iraq is danger for the entire region," he argued.

A government spokesman said that diplomatic relations between Syria and Iraq will be restored this week during Moallem's visit.

There has been increased talk of diplomatic efforts to involve Syria and Iran in helping to end the violence Iraq.

An official in Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's office said he had accepted an invitation from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to visit Tehran this weekend.

An MP for the main Shiite bloc, Bassem Sharif, said that there was a possibility that President Bashar Assad might join the talks.

"There is some expectation that the Syrian president may be present," he said. "There is a real desire to have such a three-way summit and there could be a surprise."

But a Syrian official said "there are no plans for such a [tripartite] summit."

In Washington, US State Department spokesman Tom Casey voiced skepticism that any meeting between Iran, Syria and Iraq could help to reduce the violence and said similar meetings in the past had not resulted in that happening.
The Daily Star - Lebanon - The Middle East's Leading English Newspaper

"In those contacts, we have seen public statements from the Iranian government, expressing their desire to reduce the violence and to respond positively to the situation in Iraq," Casey told reporters in Washington.

"As I've said, unfortunately, those positive statements - and this applies to the case of Syria as well - have not been backed up by actual, concrete steps," he added.

Concerning Damascus, Casey said, Washington is still waiting for action to stop foreign fighters from entering Iraq from Syria.

In Baghdad, coalition spokesman Major General William Caldwell said Monday that up to 100 foreign fighters cross into Iraq from Syria every month.

"We don't know how much they [the Syrians] are assisting this effort, but we don't know how much they are trying to preclude it either," Caldwell told reporters in Baghdad.

"We still see foreign fighters coming, between 70 and 100 a month coming across the Syrian border into Iraq," he said, figures in line with those of the past year.

He said US and Iraqi soldiers had killed 425 foreign fighters so far this year and captured 670. Twenty percent of them were Syrian, a similar percentage Egyptian, and most of the rest from Sudan and Saudi Arabia.

The past week has seen bitter sectarian tensions come to a head inside Iraq's national unity government.

At a news conference uniting ministers who have been openly at odds over the fate of dozens of civil servants kidnapped last week, Defense Minister Abdel-Qader Jassem said the security forces were hunting the kidnappers: "We are in a state of war and in war all measures are permissible."

Maliki, who is preparing a Cabinet reshuffle, warned political leaders they had to abandon sectarian, partisan interests and pull together.

"We cannot be politicians by day and with the militias or terrorists ... by night," he told generals, whose own loyalties are in question.

Deputy Health Minister Hakim al-Zamily said gunmen attacked his convoy and killed two guards near a Sunni rebel stronghold. Zamily was the second ministry deputy targeted in two days. Ammar al-Saffar, a member of Maliki's Daawa party, was kidnapped from his home by gunmen in uniform.

In all, 21 Iraqis were killed Monday in a series of attacks in Baghdad, Ramadi, Baqouba and near the Syrian border, and the bodies of 26 Iraqis who had been tortured were found on the streets of several cities across the country, police said.

US military data showed less violence in Baghdad in the past four weeks than at any time since the government was formed but it spiked last week, Caldwell said. - Agencies


The Daily Star - Politics - Maliki vows to keep Iraq from being a battlefield for others

Without a significant r/v how will the average Iraqi (not those employed by the government) ever pull themselves out of the monstrous hole they are in? Will the gov't employ everyone? Show me one gov't who empoyed through Socialist policies such a scenerio and did not abandon it at some point as a failed experiment. Unless Iraq wants a skewed economy of rich and poor with nobody filling in the middle, the value of the dinar must be raised significantly. Wasn't it Adster that brought us that quote from the minister of finance that said it had to be done by the end of this year? Can I get a witness? Amen, let it be so!

Originally Posted by boomcreek

At 1,449 dinar per dollar that's 5,782 Dinar for a Big Mac.

So, when the Iraqi people receive their 10.000 dinar they can buy 2 Big Mac's, well....not quite! LOL. It's not even enough to buy a child a pair of shoes.
Bring it on!!! R/V!!!!!

I want to give everyone an update on the total amount of dinars taken out of circulation inclusive of the last 11 auctions. It was at the beginning of these most recent auctions that the intent of the CBI and its new plan became more apparent. As of this morning the total stood at just under 1 trillion dinars. 935,278,035,000 to be exact. I will keep a running total on a daily basis and post again after the next auction tomorrow morning. It will be interesting to see what happens when they reach 1365, the IMF target figure for the end of 2006.

Originally Posted by "GK"

As the revaluation of the IQD continues so is the IQD's increase in purchasing power. At some point they're going to have to release the fils. Rounding off the prices of goods into whole numbers is not going to work anymore. Either the seller is going to lose out or the buyer is going to lose out. They need smaller denoms for change. I think that point in time is near.

And lower denoms (1's, 5's, etc.) before or with the fils GK?

Randy