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

Originally Posted by ordinaryseawoman

Hey Y'all--I need to ask for a favor--

My sister is going to have back surgery today (friday) at 0545. The doctors will install some hardware to fix a broken vertebrae and re-align her spine. The goal is pain reduction--she's on methadone and vicodan.

If you are inclined, please take a moment to pray for her or send good thoughts to her and the surgeons...

Thanks to my Rolclub family in advance (and Neno, I know, but this is the thread that gets the most hits...move my post if needed.)

OSWoman

I'll pray for her also.

Is the Iraqi economy crashing through here?
Is the Iraqi economy crashing through here?
28/12/2006
Source: American Thinker

Are we watching a John Ford western taking place in Iraq, where the private economy is in the role of the cavalry, riding to the rescue? In a column today in the New York Post called "The Boom Outside Baghdad" Amir Taheri contributes several possible tiles to this mosaic. Yesterday, AT pointed to the now 10% rise in the value of the Iraqi dinar since August. Yes, this appears to have been stimulated by an increase in the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) interest rate to 16%, but (a) this rate is not out of line with the inflation rate in Iraq of 50% and (b) if there was panic about the future of Iraq, no measures of this type would increase the value of the dinar.

We do not yet have enough information to come to a firm conclusion, but it appears there is a good chance that Bush's bet on the heart of the Iraqi people may be coming home here, in spite of the best efforts of the nihilists. We don't want to panic now if we have arrived at the critical moment for the future of Iraq. Economic activity suggests that we may have arrived at that point.

2007 budget estimated at $41 billion

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28 December 2006 (Azzaman)
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The government has approved the budget for 2007 estimated at $41 billion.

The budget is the biggest in the years since the 2003 U.S. invasion due to skyrocketing oil prices.

Saffa al-Safi, state minister for parliamentary affairs, said the figures for the 2007 budget “are encouraging in comparison with previous budgets.”

One fourth ($10 billion) of the money available for 2007 has been earmarked for development and reconstruction.

Allocations for security are the second largest, totaling $7.5 billion.

Allocations for education have been doubled to $2.6 billion and there will be a 7% increase for the health sector for which $1.8 billion has been earmarked.

Some $5.2 billion will go to provincial municipalities.

If implemented properly, the budget should create 136,000 new jobs, said Safi.

The cabinet has passed the budget to the parliament for approval.


Go Baby Go.
[COLOR="Blue"]With the completion of the fil, hcl, retirement act, the national budget being approved, and the economy on the verge of breaking out, Iraq is in a terrific position to do a revaluation.

I'm sure most of you all have read all the recent news articles referencing raising the rate of the dinar against the dollar. Some of these statements have been made by the very officials that control our destinies! As a result, there seems to be a huge interest in the uptake of dinar hoarding in the hope of a pretty decent payout next year. If Iraq worried about speculators, would they release such public statements purporting the rise of the dinar? Or is it in their interest to fuel speculators' interest so surging demand can ramp up the value of the dinar in conjunction with their strategy so far of removing dinars from circulation?

Originally Posted by michael16

2007 budget estimated at $41 billion

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

28 December 2006 (Azzaman)
Print article Send to friend
The government has approved the budget for 2007 estimated at $41 billion.

The budget is the biggest in the years since the 2003 U.S. invasion due to skyrocketing oil prices.

Saffa al-Safi, state minister for parliamentary affairs, said the figures for the 2007 budget “are encouraging in comparison with previous budgets.”

One fourth ($10 billion) of the money available for 2007 has been earmarked for development and reconstruction.

Allocations for security are the second largest, totaling $7.5 billion.

Allocations for education have been doubled to $2.6 billion and there will be a 7% increase for the health sector for which $1.8 billion has been earmarked.

Some $5.2 billion will go to provincial municipalities.

If implemented properly, the budget should create 136,000 new jobs, said Safi.

The cabinet has passed the budget to the parliament for approval.


Go Baby Go.
[COLOR="Blue"]With the completion of the fil, hcl, retirement act, the national budget being approved, and the economy on the verge of braking out, Iraq is in a terrific position to do a revaluation.

$41 Billion...notice that this is in dollars...quick calculatons would make this at just over 53 trillion dinar....now how much currency was printed...maybe 21 trillion dinar. I think that this is a clear indication that something has to give with the dinar currency. For instance, if 10 Billion is set aside for construction, how much will have to be imported goods? Lets look at the big picture here folks, HCL will give 33% back to the good people of Iraq (minus the one that will be hanged this weekend) so what will be left of the "skyrocketing oil prices" which fluctuate on the market daily. Add in the surpluss of oil which will come out of Iraq which could drop oil prices even more as Iraq has been excempt from OPEC cuts for time being, then Iraq can't count on oil prices alone to support their budget. Agriculture and gold and of course fresh water will be of assistance....but not immediatly. 53 trillion dinar budget, the need for cheaper imports, quality of life for citizens "the budget should create 136,000 new jobs" well, I see reval in near future. It will seem like an eternity till Jan 7/ 07, however I think the news will pour out regarding the HCL, FIL and the ICI. I think this is the time they need to allow for price adjustments in the markets, the time they need to get the smaller denoms into circulation etc..etc. This is just my opinion, I like it, and until something better comes along..I'm sticking with it.

Oil: Analysis: Iraq oil in '07, bleak as '06

LawkSalih.Com - Analysis: Iraq oil in '07, bleak as '06

Iraq has a lot of oil, more than any other country in the world except two.

But its oil sector suffered decades of misuse by Saddam Hussein, leaving it badly in need of repair.
U.N. sanctions after Saddam invaded Kuwait in 1990 further hampered development.

Then came the U.S.-led invasion and occupation, going on four years next March, and the reverberations of militia and insurgent attacks.

Various factions are fighting over control of the country, as well as its oil, and there's a struggle between the central and regional governments over which side will oversee future development of Iraq's 115 billion barrels of crude reserves.

The security situation in the country is bad and getting worse, keeping investors from putting any people or resources on the ground that may not survive.

And even if oil companies or investors in Iraq's oil sector did decide to move in, there is no law telling what they can and cannot do, and what benefit they will or will not receive.

This is the state of Iraq's oil and, with 96 percent of its budget funded by oil revenues, Iraq itself.

Behind closed doors, Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni political leaders -- among others, including officials of McLean, Va.-based BearingPoint, contracted by the United States -- are negotiating a federal oil law.

Beyond those doors, beyond the walls of what is known as the Green Zone, a protected area in Baghdad and the only safe location aside from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in the north, about 1.9 million barrels of Iraqi oil is pumped daily.

This is below the 2.6 million barrels before the war; it's a tally only steady in that it can never be gauged or predicted.

"We're where we were two years ago as far as production goes," said Erik Kreil, an analyst with the Energy Information Administration, the data arm of the U.S. Energy Department.

"Oil production really went up negligibly" in 2006, he said. "A whole year has gone by and production went up approximately on average 100,000 barrels a day."

Iraq is pumping oil basically at capacity and mostly from the Shiite-controlled fields in the south since attacks have rendered the north mostly useless.

There are no meters at the pumps so you "really never now for sure what's produced," Kreil said.

Iraq exports about 1.6 million barrels a day, and an estimated smuggling ring is so entrenched the Iraq Oil Ministry says $700 million a month is taken from its rightful coffers.

Attacks and a spotty if not non-existent electricity supply have created a bottleneck in Iraq's refining capacity and forced it to import petroleum products like gasoline. (Smugglers are also getting their hands on whatever gas supply there is and basically starving Baghdad.)

Iraq's Oil Ministry said it lost $11 billion and 651 days of oil exports from the start of 2004 to mid 2006 because of attacks on its oil pipeline from Kirkuk in the north to Ceyhan, Turkey. It was once a major avenue for Iraq's sales.

From Jan. 1 to Nov. 29 of this year alone, Iraq Pipeline Watch, a joint project between the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security and Threat Resolution Ltd., counted 94 attacks on "pipelines, oil installations, and oil personnel."

Security is so bad that passing an oil law may not have much of an impact, at least not at first.

"They're not there yet," said Alex Turkeltaub, a managing director of the Frontier Strategy Group, a consultant focused on the energy industry.

He said 90 percent of his clients "think it's going to get a lot worse before it gets a lot better."

"I do not see a source for substantial production increases in the coming year," he said.

Yet, an oil deal that the three main factions in Iraq agree on could set the stage for reducing ethnic tensions, rebuilding Iraq's oil infrastructure and increasing the country's wealth.

But the oil deal is virtually stuck now. The Kurds want regional control over all future oil contracts, which they claim is allowed by the Iraqi constitution, passed in 2005.

Sunnis, with no oil reserves, want central control so revenues won't stay in the regions.

Most Shiites back the Sunni plan, eyeing a controlling stake in a strong central government.

"All of the markers are negative" in 2006 said Robert Ebel, chairman of the energy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Next year isn't shaping up to be much better.

"I don't see much hope unless President Bush and his new secretary of defense come up with a brand new idea that Iraqis will like," Ebel said.

But on the ground, he said it will take both an acceptable oil law and change in security conditions, basically those supporting violence in Iraq to decide to work together for the betterment of the country.

If not, "it'll be the same all over again."

The closure of petrol stations in the civil Sulaymaniyah tomorrow
By Amanj Khalil Mahmoud hum
Sulaymaniyah - (Voices of Iraq)

An official source in the district center of the city of Sulaymaniyah today, Thursday, that it had been decided to close down all fuel stations in the city to the civil commitment not to prices set by the government.

The source said News Agency (Voices of Iraq) that the independent stations rose civil fuel prices in recent days spectacularly failed to abide by terms set by the government and therefore decided to close for one day.

He added, "were the price of gasoline at 900 Iraqi dinars per liter by the government, but they did not abide by, and they arrived to the two thousand dinars per liter."

He pointed out that police detachments consistently followed the prices of fuel in the stations and will take the civil right of prices does not abide by the necessary legal proceedings.

It is noteworthy that there are ten stations and the fuel capacity in the city of Sulaymaniyah.

ÇáÓáíãÇäíÉ - æÞæÏ :: Aswat al Iraq :: Aswat al Iraq


Are they trying to tackle the black market here!

The first Iraqi President to visit Syria in 26 years
(Voice of Iraq) - 12-29-2006

The first Iraqi President to visit Syria 26 years ago ... Talabani in Damascus 12 next month Damascus-Ibrahim Hamidi life-29 / 12 / 06 / /

Official Iraqi sources in Damascus to «life» that President Jalal Talabani will visit Syria in the January 12 (January) next, at the head of a large official delegation. It will be his first visit to Iraq since President severing diplomatic relations between Baghdad and Damascus in 1980.

The Syrian President Bashar al-Assad received yesterday the Personal Envoy of Talabani Fakhri Karim after meeting with Vice President Farouq Al Shara, in the presence of Minister Mohamed help Nasif, Deputy Foreign Minister Fayssal Mekdad. Karim met Foreign Minister Walid Al-Muallim, after his meeting with Assad. The envoy told Iraqi President «life» that his visit to Damascus «very positive, especially as it culminated in a meeting with Al-Assad, who expressed positive unlimited, and a strong desire to overcome all the difficulties that prevent the creation of a strategic relationship (between Syria and Iraq) on all fronts».

He continued that al-Assad told him that he was personally sponsor «Syrian-Iraqi forces, and in all directions, and that is a priority for Syria regardless of the difficulties and obstacles». The sources pointed out that the Syrian and Iraqi sides were not enthusiastic «» for a tripartite summit Syrian-Iranian-Iraqi after a breakthrough in relations between Baghdad and Damascus to Baghdad to visit the teacher between 19 and 21 last month, although President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was wanted in the summit. He was scheduled to visit Damascus Talabani at the end of this year, but some of the obstacles »« led to the agreement on access in the 12 next month, after a number of concrete steps in the direction of improving bilateral relations.

It is expected to be accompanied by the Iraqi president, in the visit that will last a few days, the leaders of a number of political parties, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and Interior Jawad Polanyi, and officials from the files of oil, the economy, trade and water, for the formation of committees with their Syrian develop relations and to take concrete steps.

Kareem said : «will be agreement on the development of economic relations», before referring to the possibility of benefiting from major projects Syria, Iraq, the budget would rise to $ 44 billion next year.

He added : «Kurdistan region can absorb all the workers who left the Syrians from Lebanon» after the withdrawal of Syrian forces in April (April) last year, prior to point out that the decision was made to b «» synchronization between enhancing security cooperation and the development of commercial relations.

The Iraqi president's envoy visited Damascus before a visit teacher Baghdad between 19 and 21 last month to agree on the four specific steps between the two sides culminated in the resumption of diplomatic relations this month. The sources said that the Syrian-Iraqi dialogue currently dealing with a change in the political discourse and the media to include «condemnation of all terrorist acts» and the lack of any political support to the rebels and the resumption of diplomatic relations and to address the security issue and the presence of officials of the former regime and cooperation in the fight against terrorism. While calling for the expulsion of Iraqi b «» or «controlling» «leaders of the Party of the Iraqi Baath» such as Ahmed Younis, former director of military intelligence, Taher Habush, the Syrian side, a lack of presence in the Syrian territories, and a number of them to leave Algeria and Yemen. The sources pointed out that the Iraqi who is, and his Syrian counterpart, Major General Abdel Bassam will finalize an agreement on a number of specific points on security cooperation after the signing of a memorandum of understanding during the visit of the Iraqi minister last week to Damascus and ensure cooperation in the fight against terrorism and the exchange of information.

The Syrian side expressed willingness to conduct joint patrols and cooperation with the Iraqi side to control the border and prevent the infiltration of fighters into Iraq. As suggested by the Iraqi side to provide «» full political support for the political process in Iraq and to the government of Nuri al-Maliki, which happened to the teacher's visit to Baghdad in the last month.

Sotaliraq.com


What is going on!!

Everywhere we read the $41 billion budget and now suddenly the budget rise to $44 billion!

That's $3 billion more, just like that out of nowhere.

Guys, I got the feeling more and more the truth is coming out and it's no coincidence that it happens now.

Iraq has a plan and it will be executed the next weeks!

WWWWEEEEAAAHHHHH!!

Read this Article and there is no other way then that the Hydrocarbon Law and Investment Law are enacted Now!

Here we go again!

WWWWWEEEEEAAAAHHHHH!!



The first investment project in the oil sector of Kurdistan
(Voice of Iraq) - 12-29-2006

Irbil (December 29) and the agency (Lucky) Italian News-A government source Kurdi,

"the first investment project in the oil sector has entered the implementation phase in Kurdistan, the establishment of an oil refinery, a small card barrels in 1500 for the production of oil derivatives (petrol, oil and Alcazulin) near the city of Sulaymaniyah, and a technical committee is now studying the site selection appropriate for the construction of the refinery."

The source said that "investment project done by joint investment both domestic and foreign, which is the first of its kind in the oil sector, and hopefully be completed middle of next year, which will start operation initial production capacity of about 1500 barrels of oil per day." At the same 7 March Nouri deputy governor of Sulaymaniyah that "50% of the construction project Bazian refinery production capacity of 20 thousand barrels had been completed and that there are some of the equipment required for the completion of the project was incomplete and will be available after the end of the Id al-Adha holiday."

He added, "the project is implemented at the expense of the Iraqi Ministry of Industry, which is one of the Iraqi government projects in the region, and if completed will be the Ministry of Oil ensure the transfer of crude oil from Kirkuk to the refinery." It is noteworthy that the Kurdish provinces suffer from almost a year of the fuel crisis and sharp especially gasoline and kerosene (used for heating) and liquid gas, which currently import these materials from Turkey and Iran.

The contrast between the two governments has Iraqi and regional impact of the oil bill, which allows local governments to sign contracts with foreign companies to invest in the oil sector, where the Iraqi government maintained the right to enter into those contracts, insisted on the territorial government to give them freedom of movement in the field of oil investment.

Sotaliraq.com


Reading this article is telling us that Central Government and Kurdistan are working together according to the new Hydrocarbon Law.

This project is phase "IMPLEMENTATION" with Foreign Companies which tells us that Investment Law also must be enacted!!

Originally Posted by DanielJay

Called the main Chase branch here in Chicago to try and see if I could buy some dinar from them. 10 S. Dearborn in downtown, apparently the only Chase branch with a foriegn currency dept. They told me that they do not and will not deal with Iraqi dinars now or anytime in the future. The lady on the phone told me it is a "restricted currency", whatever that means.

Anyways, just thought I'd post what I heard. Looking to pickup 550k if anyone has any they want to dump let me know

they have no idea what they are talking about at THAT branch, just go into ANY CHASE bank around the USA and order, do not call, go in, and you will be able to order, next day pick up...