Thread: Archive News - Iraqi Dinar Think Tank - 08/09/09 - 09/01/10

The European Union stands ready to contribute to the organization of the upcoming parliamentary elections

New Minister of Foreign Affairs of Member States of the European Union support for the development of the democratic process in Iraq, expressing their readiness to assist Iraq in the organization of the forthcoming parliamentary elections.

The joint statement issued by the Foreign Ministers of Member States of the European Union after their meeting in Brussels need to be Iraq's next election in a peaceful manner and in accordance with international standards.

The Ministers welcomed the outcome of the negotiations in their statement of Iraq - which led the European consensus on the text of the partnership and cooperation agreement between the parties, which will provide an opportunity for Iraqis and the Europeans to establish a political and economic relations and trade.

http://www.radiodijla.com/cgi-bin/ne...?id=2009-12-09

Iraqi Drilling Company plans to drill 180 oil wells in 2010

The director of the Iraqi Drilling Company Idris Yasiri the company would drill 180 oil wells in 2010.

The Yasiri in a press statement that 30 of the wells to be drilled next year will be in the northern oil fields and 150 in the south to add approximately 360 thousand barrels of oil per day production capacity of Iraq.

The Yasiri that the number of new wells next year will exceed the total number of what has been excavated since 2003, and each well will add two thousand barrels per day.

Iraq has signed agreements worth billions of dollars with international oil companies as may be possible to increase production to about 3-fold to about 7 million barrels a day, bringing Iraq to the third largest crude oil producers in the world.

http://www.radiodijla.com/cgi-bin/ne...?id=2009-12-08

Oil reassure staff SOC justifiably privileges when entering the corporate world

Tmint Ministry of Oil and all the staff of the Southern Oil Company of the contracts signed by the ministry with international companies.

The press spokesman Assem Jihad, the ministry's press department of the National Center for media that these companies will, depending on national capacity by more than 80%, and provide the best opportunities of working to develop their skills using new technology. He added that the ministry is keen to develop the competencies of Iraq through the conclusion of these contracts and make the item on development of human resources of the most important requirements for the completion of these contracts. The Jihad, the ministry demanded that the winning companies need to refine the experience of the Iraqi side during the sessions both within and outside the country, and to inform the Iraqi capabilities on the most prominent findings, possibly the world in the oil industry.

He said the ministry has asked the companies to provide places at prestigious universities in the world for workers in the oil sector to specialize in the petroleum industry, adding that the coming years, Iraq will have the elements of administrative cadres of the oil industry.

The number of staff in the Southern Oil Company who feared losing their privileges career with the entry of international companies to invest in oil fields.

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Parliament’s financial committee requires 2 weeks to examine 2010 budget

The Iraqi Parliament’s financial committee needs around two weeks to discuss Iraq’s 2010 budget.

“We have our strategy,” Lawmaker Serwan al-Zahawi, a member of the committee, told Aswat al-Iraq news agency on Wednesday.

He said that the committee extensively studies the budget and compares it to previous years.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=123257

45 international companies are competing to invest on 10 oil fields

Ministry of Oil announced that 45 international companies will compete in the second round of licenses for investment in ten oil fields on Friday and Saturday.

The ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said in a statement the "morning", said 45 companies from among 120 international companies will compete in the second round of licenses to develop oil fields discovered ten undeveloped.

He stressed that companies representing 23 countries were selected according to the best specifications for the development of oil fields in the country, adding that the ministry expects large turnout and competition for investment as shown by the size of the share that witnessed at the Istanbul Conference, held recently in this regard.

He noted that during the Friday and Saturday receive and open tenders of companies eligible to compete on service contracts for oil fields covered by the ten-second licensing round, stressing that the opening of the tenders will be in the ministry's headquarters in an open and transparent. And Jihad, said the fields are the Majnoon and West Qurna "second stage" in the province of Basra and Maysan, in the Halfayah Gharraf in Dhi Qar and rump and West Kifl and Morgan in the Middle Euphrates region and east of Baghdad in Baghdad and Qayyarah and star in Nineveh, Badra border in Wasit province, in addition to the set of fields in the eastern province Diyala, a Khashm Red Naoduman, moon and hooks.

He pointed out that the Jihad development of oil fields within the proposed licensing rounds will increase exports of Iraqi crude oil to seven million barrels per day over the next six years, noting that the country will jump from eleventh place currently occupied by the oil-producing countries to third place through the oil investment. The Oil Ministry has set up the end of the first licensing round last June with the participation of 32 companies of different nationalities to develop the fields of North and South Rumaila, Zubair, West Qurna in the province of Basra, Bazargan, Abu Fakkah West and in the province of Maysan, the fields of Kirkuk and Bai Hassan, which produce more than 80 percent of total production of Iraqi oil, in addition to the two fields Ghaziin, but the tour ended with an agreement to invest Rumaila only by a coalition of British company BP and Chinese CANC chaired by the first.

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A U.S. embassy statement is a non-Iraqi Kurdish region

Distributed what it called the U.S. embassy issued a statement from the White House on election and the explicit reference to the intervention of the occupying power in an internal affair, a so-called Article 140 expired as well as a description of the statement implied that the government of Iraqi Kurdistan is not saying (the differences between the Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government) and confirm this clearly indicates that the non-Iraqi Kurds, which serves as a preparation for the separation of the Kurdish region

The text of the statement, as distributed by the Embassy of the occupation: a statement from the White House about the Iraqi elections to pass a law amended

United States congratulates the Iraqi people and his deputies elected on the occasion of the Iraqi elections to pass a law amended, and look forward to the establishment of national elections.

The negotiations that led to the passage of the act has once again proven that the Iraqis and their leaders are committed to taking the reins of control over their future and resolve their differences peacefully and in line with the Iraqi Constitution. Has supported the United States since 2005, the Iraqi constitution as a basis Iraqis can protect their rights and build national unity.

And this Constitution, including the establishment of the Government of the Kurdistan region has contributed to the stabilization of Iraq.

United States renews its strong support for the Iraqi people and their elected government, and reaffirms its respect for the Iraqi constitution, including Article 140 which deals with the dispute over Kirkuk and other disputed areas, and Article 142 which deals with the process of amending the Constitution. We will continue to support the Iraqi people and their elected government as they move forward towards the full implementation, just the Iraqi constitution.

There are still challenges facing Iraq, including the differences between the Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government, and the United States is ready to help all Iraqis to meet to find solutions to a new political differences the old, to remove the old fears and build a future together as a united country enjoyed a proud and historic in the international community.

Iraq will, after the 2010 elections, the administration of elections in 2013 and 2014, according to the constitution and Iraqi laws, and establish a modern and accurate census of the population will help to create this future elections, and the United States remains ready to assist the Government of Iraq to establish an accurate census of the population in the coming year as one of the factors supporting a stable Iraq with a government fair and accountable to the Iraqi people.

Make the United States thanks to the United Nations for its important role in helping the Iraqis to create the next elections, pledges continued support of the United States to the United Nations Mission in Iraq ...

Quote the statement
Is required of all events and parties that claim to be national and defend Iraq is required to issue statements clarifying its position on the occupation of blatant intervention on behalf of clients separatists

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7th December 2009

Firms overstate Iraq oil potential - govt adviser

Some international oil companies have overstated how high they can take Iraq's crude oil production, a senior government adviser said on Monday, ahead of a second round of oilfield development tenders this week.

Thamir Ghadhban, adviser to Iraq's prime minister and a former oil minister, told an industry conference that he believed 6 million barrels per day (bpd) was a realistic target for Iraq's oil output within the next 6 to 7 years.

This is well below the estimates of 10 or even 12 million bpd that have been mentioned as a result of plateau production targets proposed by some foreign oil companies as they bid for Iraqi oilfield contracts.

Iraq's Oil Ministry plans to auction off contracts for 10 untapped oilfields on Dec. 11-12, the latest chapter in a scheme to catapult it into the big league of oil producers. Contracts awarded since a first round of tenders in June alone have the potential to almost triple output to 7 million bpd.

"With all due respect to IOCs (international oil companies) and their technical expertise, I think some of the plateau figures that were bid on in the first round were exaggerated and most likely unsustainable," said Thamir Ghadhban.

"According to our plan an oil production rate of 4.1 million bpd will be achieved by 2012 and this will be ramped up to 6.0 million bpd by 2017," Ghadhban added.

Last month, oil major BP and China's CNPC signed a 20-year development contract for Rumaila, one of the world's biggest oilfields, sparking optimism over large increases in Iraq's crude ouput. BP and its partner committed to lifting Rumaila's output to 2.85 million bpd from 1.05 million bpd currently.

PRICE PRESSURE

Agreements have also been inked with an Eni-led group for the Zubair field and an Exxon Mobil-led consortium for West Qurna. These three projects alone have the potential to lift Iraq's output by 4.5 million bpd from 2.5 million bpd currently, according to the projections provided by the oil companies.

Even the lower estimate for production increases mentioned by Ghadhban could put pressure on oil prices given the slow pace of demand recovery following the global economic crisis and as the world works towards improved energy efficiency.

Some analysts suggest Iraq could be damaging its own economy by allowing output to increase too rapidly.

"What Iraq can gain from producing more oil it will lose in a fall in price," said Fadhil Chalabi, E.xecutive director at Centre for Global Energy Studies in London, in reaction to Ghadhban's speech on Monday.
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Ghadhban said on Monday he did not expect fellow OPEC members to be concerned by production increase plans, despite a possible impact on oil prices.

"I am not of the opinion that we are approaching any problems with OPEC."

OPEC meets on Dec. 22 in Angola to decide on future output policy.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSG...pe=marketsNews

Iraqi oil power may shake Iran more than Saudi
* Iraq to tie up big oil investment, leaving little for Iran

The geopolitical power balance in the Middle East faces upheaval if Iraq succeeds in tripling oil output, and fellow Shi'ite power Iran will feel more threatened than rival Sunni oil giant Saudi Arabia. Iraq's potential leap into the ranks of the top three global oil producers could result in a strengthened Shi'ite Muslim front within OPEC if Baghdad aligns supply policy with Tehran.

That would rattle Riyadh, already suspicious of the rise to political supremacy of Iraq's Shi'ite majority since the fall of Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein. Disunity within OPEC could increase, undermining efforts to present an image of harmony. But oil development in Iraq is more likely to feed tensions with Iran, draw away potential foreign investment from Iraq's neighbour and fuel social discord by depriving Tehran of much-needed money should it result in lower oil prices. Revenue from the additional 4.5 million or more barrels per day that Iraq is hoping to pump could also give it the economic might to challenge Iran's influence over the Shi'ite world.

"Iraq's development is inevitable," said analyst Gala Riana of IHS Global Insight. "The changes in the balance of power won't be immediate, they are longer term and bring difficulties that Iraq and surrounding countries will need to deal with."

OIL INVESTMENT

Both Iraq and Iran need huge investment in their dilapidated oil industries. Iraq's opening to global energy firms, albeit on tough terms, gives it the edge in attracting the billions it needs to e.xecute oilfield development of an unprecedented scale. That would make it harder for Tehran to attract the cash it needs at a time when the Iranian state is already under enormous social and political pressure following the contested re-election of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Even worse, Chinese state energy giants are participating in Iraq, leaving them less resources for elsewhere. Tehran has turned to Asian state firms for money and technology as Western companies have shunned it due to politics and sanctions.

"Why would you want to invest in Iran? It's very risky. You have the sanctions and the politics. If you're in Iraq, you would want to limit your exposure to another risky country in the region," said a senior western oil E.xecutive.

Iran could well become the destination for those that lose out in Iraq's oil auctions, he added. If all of the contracts Baghdad is offering are signed, Iraq could boost its output capacity to 10 million bpd - rivalling Saudi Arabia's 12.5 million bpd and Russia's 10 million bpd, and leapfrogging over Iran, which says it can pump 4.2 million bpd. Iran is more dependent than top oil exporter Saudi Arabia on high oil prices to finance social spending programmes. Higher output from Iraq would be bearish in the long term for the oil price and could also claw away market share from others.

"Another price downturn like that of last winter would really put the squeeze on the Iranian government, already suffering unpopularity from economic mismanagement, as well as the obvious political problems stemming from the election," said David Mack, a former U.S. envoy to the Middle East.

UNDER SWAY OF ARCH-FOE?

Saudi Arabia will watch the rise of Iraqi oil power and its relationship with Tehran with caution. Dominated by the puritanical Wahhabi sect, many of whose adherents view Shi'ites as apostates, Riyadh regards Persian Iran as its arch-foe. But analysts say the view that post-Saddam Iraq is under the sway of Iran is often overstated. Many of Iraq's Shi'ite leaders sought shelter in Tehran under Saddam, but Iraqi nationalism runs strong, as do memories of the 8-year Iran-Iraq war that killed a million people.

Even if a general election next year ushers in an overtly pro-Iranian government in Baghdad, the impact that increased Iraqi oil output might have on economic and political tensions inside Iran may drive the two neighbours apart, analysts say. Ultimately, staunch U.S. ally Saudi Arabia would rather see a developing and prosperous Iraq than a country that serves as a base for al Qaeda. The kingdom has become entangled in neighbour Yemen's internal conflict and deepening instability.

"It's in our interest that Iraq emerges stable, we don't want another Yemen," said one Saudi official. "If Iraq becomes a regional economic power, that will help the Saudi economy."

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSG...pe=marketsNews

Iraq opens big slice of oil riches to outside bids

It's been a strained courtship between Iraq and oil companies jockeying for its untapped riches — complicated by jitters about insecurity, lack of a legal rule book to govern investments and Baghdad's tightfisted bargaining that turned last summer's much-hyped bidding round into a failure.

Even as the same security and political concerns remain unresolved, they appear ready to give it another go. For the companies, the prize is too big to ignore: 15 fields that represent the largest cut of Iraq's oil wealth available to outside companies in decades. For Iraq, it means access to technical expertise and hard cash, with oil sales accounting for 95 percent of its budget. A successful auction this time could set the tone for future deals as Iraq opens up the world's third-largest oil reserves to companies for whom cheap oil is becoming increasingly a thing of the past.

"The volumes," Samuel Ciszuk, an oil expert with London-based consultancy IHS Global Insight, said, summing up simply the incentive for the companies despite the political uncertainties and the security risks. "It's the huge volumes involved and access to the oil flows."

A total of 44 companies will make their pitch this week, vying for the 15 fields — the largest of the reserves located in Iraq's relatively calm Shiite-dominated south.

They include giants Exxon Mobil Corp., Britain's BP Group PLC, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Total SA, as well as a range of state-backed companies from countries such as Russia, Angola, India and Kazakhstan. While they represent the best — if not only — option for Iraq's hope to rebuild an oil sector suffering alternately from decades of neglect, war and sabotage, what remains to be seen is whether these firms are willing to accept less lucrative contract provisions to stake their claim to a piece of the Middle East's last major oil and gas bonanza.

"Iraq has huge oil and gas reserves and all the world companies are interested in having even a small piece of the cake," said Kamel A. al-Harami, an independent oil analyst based in Kuwait and former president of Q8, the retail arm of the Kuwait Petroleum Co.

"I do not think that security fears would play a major role in the decisions of the oil companies."

But extra precautions will certainly be on display after Tuesday's wave of deadly bombings that targeted government offices for the third time since August. The last bidding round was held at a hotel in the Iraqi-guarded Green Zone. Friday's event was moved to the Oil Ministry building, which is under even tighter protection.

While the list of pre-approved bidders includes many of the same names — at least on the part of the international majors — that were present at the last bidding round, there was one significant snub. Iraq's oil ministry dropped China's state-owned Sinopec Group for its $7.5 billion acquisition of Addax Petroleum, which has assets in the semiautonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. The blow to Sinopec, which was among the more aggressive participants in the earlier auction, reflects the political dance which companies must concede to in order to tap into Iraq's oil.

The Kurds and Iraq's central government have been at odds over nearly two dozen deals signed by the Kurds with foreign companies after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Kurdish officials say they have the authority to deal directly with outside oil companies. But the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says it is the only legitimate channel for oil deals. The dispute has held up passage of a new oil law to govern the process. Washington had called the oil law one of its "benchmarks" for political reconciliation in Iraq, but debate has been further delayed until after parliamentary elections in March.

The oil fields up for bid are believed to hold at least 41.121 billion barrels of oil from Iraq's known reserves of at least 115 billion barrels. The headliners are two areas in the Basra region — known as the West Qurna Phase 2 and Majnoon fields — with more than 12.5 billion barrels each. They also are called "green fields" because they have not been widely developed and will not require dismantling or retooling of old equipment. An added bonus is that many Iraqi fields have high-quality crude that can be extracted easily and at a relatively low production cost. Iraq has held the line on what it is willing to offer.

The companies must accept 20-year service contracts and receive a flat fee per barrel produced for their services instead of production-sharing contracts, which are considered more lucrative. A joint-venture structure will give the companies 75 percent and the rest to the Iraqi side that gets to keep all the profits from sales — which could be tens of millions of dollars a year for the biggest fields. Analysts say that while Iraq is still playing tough, it has learned some lessons from the failure of the last round, which saw only one deal signed on the spot out of the eight oil and gas fields on offer. Companies balked at the low per-barrel compensation Iraq was willing to pay.

BP PLC and its partner CNPC of China won the rights to develop Iraq's biggest oil field, the 17.8 billion-barrel Rumaila field in the country's south. Two other international consortiums have since revised their bids to develop two other prized oil fields near Rumaila.

"The Iraqis are a bit more relaxed with the terms, to a certain extent," said Cizsuk.

The government has agreed to give international companies more operational control over the projects, he said, and has also clarified the taxes which would apply, eliminating at least one source of concern for the companies. Although the current focus remains on the southern fields, companies keep an eye trained on the north. The oil fields around Kirkuk are another crown jewel, but major investment from foreign firms remains blocked by disputes between the Kurds and the central government in Baghdad. Kurds exert wide influence over Kirkuk, which is outside the Kurdish enclave but they consider part of their historical territory. Unlike the previous round, none of Kirkuk's fields is offered. But some nearby northern areas are up for grabs.

"Everyone is very interested in Kirkuk, but few companies want to wade into the strategic dilemma with the Kurds and Baghdad," said Ciszuk. "This is the big problem that Iraq needs to solve."

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CBI dollar sales up by 55% on Thursday

The Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) dollar sales rose by 55% to reach $227.190 million in its daily auction on Thursday, compared to $155.251 million during the previous session.

“The demand hit $16.480 million in cash, covered at exchange rate of 1,170 Iraqi dinars per dollar, and $210.710 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 17 banks that participated in today’s session offered to sell dollars.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=123278