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

Originally Posted by kiko

Iraq declares war on petroleum smuggling
BAGHDAD, Iraq, 27 November 2006 (AFX News Limited)

Smugglers were loading gasoline on a ship at an illegal port in southern Iraq when police surprised them with a raid that ended with five smugglers and two policemen dead.

The October clash at Abu Flus was one of many attempts by security forces trying to stop smuggling of Iraqi petroleum products to neighboring countries, a practice that is costing the country billions of dollars every year.

Smugglers are selling millions of gallons of Iraqi gasoline, kerosene and diesel fuel outside the country every year. They then reap huge profits by selling the petroleum products back to the government for import.

"The most serious challenges facing the oil industry are smuggling and terrorism. They are both hitting the national economy, robbing Iraq and blocking development," said Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad.

Despite the fact that Iraq has the world's third largest proven oil reserves, the government is forced to import refined oil products to cover domestic demand. As recently as September, the country's three main refineries were working at half their pre-invasion capacity, processing only about 350,000 barrels day compared with about 700,000 barrels a day before March 2003.

Aging refineries, corruption and attacks by insurgents on infrastructure, such as pipelines, have been blamed for the production shortage.

In September, the oil ministry estimated that it would spend $800 million on imported oil products in the last four months of the year.

Many people try to subsidized their meager incomes through purchasing government-priced oil products and selling them to smugglers who take the products by boat or tanker trucks to Jordan, Syria, Kuwait, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

Jihad said Iraq buys oil for about 54 cents a quart and sells it within the country for between 7 and 13 cents, subsidizing the remainder.

"This is encouraging smuggling to neighboring countries," Jihad said.

Jihad said it was impossible to calculate how much petroleum is smuggled. Sabah al-Saidi, who heads the Iraqi parliament's anti-corruption committee, said the Oil Ministry inspector general has listed 13 Iraqi companies smuggling oil and says they are backed by Iraqi political groups.

"We are losing an average of $700 million a month. Most of the products are smuggled by sea."

In a report two weeks ago on smuggling, Iraqi government said security forces had captured two tanker trucks in the southern province of Basra while trying to smuggle kerosene.

"The main mission at the oil ministry is to eradicate this phenomenon," said Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani in a recent television interview.

Amer al-Baldawi, who serves on the Iraqi parliament's economic committee, said one solution would be to raise prices in Iraq to those in neighboring countries.

Gasoline at some Baghdad gas stations costs about a dollar a gallon, but it takes hours of waiting in the line to fill up. On the black market, gasoline costs about $1.40 a gallon.

In the United Arab Emirates, by contrast, it costs about $1.76 a gallon and in Syria and Jordan it's about $2.40 a gallon.

More than 90 percent of the Iraqi government's income comes from oil exports.

Iraq's oil industry losses since Saddam Hussein's ouster in 2003 stand at about $15 billion, Jihad said.

Before the war, the Beiji refinery, the country's largest, produced more than 2.5 million gallons a day, nearly half what the country needed. But, Jihad said, the refinery currently produces only about 400,000 gallons a day.

Oil smuggling first began in the 1990s when Iraq was under U.N. sanctions. The government was in dire need of hard currency, and smuggling oil to Iran and selling it to international markets as Iranian oil was the easiest way to get cash.

The chaotic security situation and continuous attacks on pipelines, tanker trucks and refineries have had an enormous impact on Iraq, which has the world's third largest oil reserves after Saudi Arabia and Iran.

In a bid to curb the smuggling, the government has stopped supplying some gasoline stations near the border and is forcing fishing boat owners to prove they truly are fishing before they can buy gasoline. All boats using the Shatt al-Arab waterway that leads to the Persian Gulf now must be registered.

Iraq declares war on petroleum smuggling | Iraq Updates


Raising the oil prices to neighbour countries is the statement that we heard before. It also falls in line with the statement that the exchange rate of the Iraqi dinar must be in line with neighbouring countries.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think they only can do that if they improve the purchasing power of the iraqi people at the same time!

You are absolutely correct. They could not achieve one without the other, not without triple digit inflation anyway and the latter flies in the face of the CBI objective This is a recipe for RV and I'm look forward to being the taste tester

Monday, Nov. 27, at noon ET

Pentagon Review Seeks Iraq Options

Ongoing Violence Raises Questions About Troop Levels, Long-Term Plan

r we rich yet!

Originally Posted by mogo

r we rich yet!

yes, we are just waiting on the cbi to post confirmation... could be a day or two... hang on.

Originally Posted by crave681

yes, we are just waiting on the cbi to post confirmation... could be a day or two... hang on.

LOL, just waiting to cash in those oil shares!

Originally Posted by crave681

yes, we are just waiting on the cbi to post confirmation... could be a day or two... hang on.

I love your way of thinking Crave.....I think we are a day or 2 as well......and those of you who say I always say that...well, yes I do and I only have to be right once.

In the spirit of the holiday season I will leave you with this thought....when I go to bed I don't have visions of sugar plums dancing in my head, I have visions of dinar revaling at high rates on the exchange.

Originally Posted by CharmedPiper

I love your way of thinking Crave.....I think we are a day or 2 as well......and those of you who say I always say that...well, yes I do and I only have to be right once.

In the spirit of the holiday season I will leave you with this thought....when I go to bed I don't have visions of sugar plums dancing in my head, I have visions of dinar revaling at high rates on the exchange.

You always say that!

Originally Posted by CharmedPiper

I love your way of thinking Crave.....I think we are a day or 2 as well......and those of you who say I always say that...well, yes I do and I only have to be right once.

In the spirit of the holiday season I will leave you with this thought....when I go to bed I don't have visions of sugar plums dancing in my head, I have visions of dinar revaling at high rates on the exchange.

When it's all said and done we can write our own "Twas the night before the R/V..."

Large fire in the North Oil Company after the bombing, mortar
Essam of Gibraltar
Kirkuk - (Voices of Iraq)

An official source in the city of Kirkuk that the large fire broke out today, Monday, at the headquarters of focus amid North Oil Company ‘impact of the fall of two mortar.

The source added from the Chamber of joint operations in Kirkuk News Agency (Voices of Iraq) Independent, "it was this afternoon after launching two mortar shells at the North Oil Company,
Fell on the compound concentration of oil in the North Oil Company. , Which resulted from the events of large fire. "

He added, "is trying to fire trucks in the company and the Iraqi security forces and multinational forces to quench the fire."

The attack was the second of its kind. where the compound focus has been subjected to an attack earlier this year resulted in the complete stoppage of all installations and refineries, the Northern Oil Company, containing Mjmahma in major Iraqi oilfields.

ßÑßæß- äÝØ- ÍÑíÞ (ÚÇÌá) :: Aswat al Iraq :: Aswat al Iraq


That is not encouraging!

They better can act very quick now before this is getting out of hand on all sides!

I thought the idea was to increase the oil production and NOT TO BOMB it!!

Originally Posted by mogo

r we rich yet!

I like to think of it as prerich, lol kind of like those preapproved loans, almost there but not quite