Thread: Archive News - Iraqi Dinar Think Tank - 28/03/10 - 21/06/10

Gang of suspected counterfeiters arrested in northern Iraq

Iraqi police have arrested a gang suspected of forging Iraqi banknotes near the northern city of Mosul, a source said Saturday.

'A force of the Iraqi Army arrested 13 people, including two women, who were specialized in forging money,' the source at Mosul Operations told the German Press Agency dpa, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The gang were allegedly to have forged 25,000 dinar notes, the source said, adding around 441 million in forged dinar notes (400,000 dollars) was seized during the arrest.

Many forged banknotes have been found in circulation in Mosul recently, prompting Iraqi and US forces to launched a campaign to educate merchants and bankers about counterfeit cash.

Fake notes, with a face value of around 4 million dollars have surfaced in Iraq since December.

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/ne...-northern-Iraq

Late govt. formation blamed for 2011 budget delay – official

A local official in the Anbar Provincial Council warned on Saturday that the late formation of a new government would cause delay in adopting the 2011 state budget.

“The formation of a new government might take four months more and we hop there would be links among the political blocs to maintain the state’s higher interests,” Muzher Hassan al-Mulla told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=130332

Schlumberger to Invest $100 Million in Rumaila Camp, Drilling

Schlumberger Ltd. will invest an initial $100 million in a base camp at Iraq’s Rumaila oilfield and a drilling joint venture in the country as improving security boosts expectations of a revival in oil output.

The funds will be used for a camp of 300 people and a venture with state-owned Iraqi Drilling Co., with which it has a share in $500 million of services contracts at the BP Plc-led Rumaila field, Stephen Whittaker, a spokesman for Houston-based Schlumberger, said by e-mail.

Oil-service providers are returning to Iraq after the government signed 10 contracts for oilfield development, seeking to boost production after years of war and sanctions destroyed the industry. BP has said Rumaila may become the world’s second- largest producing field by 2015.

Schlumberger’s joint-venture contract is for drilling wells and providing associated technical services including wireline logging, cementing and pressure pumping, Whittaker said.

BP has committed to raise production at Rumaila to 2.85 million barrels a day from a baseline of 1.07 million barrels a day. The company is seeking to increase output by 10 percent in the first phase, allowing it to begin to recover costs. Other service providers with contracts at Rumaila include Weatherford International Ltd.

Iraq plans to boost production to about 12 million barrels a day within the next six years from 2.5 million. Other major fields have been awarded to Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Italy’s Eni SpA.

Schlumberger sees oil opportunities in Iraq on “a similar scale” to Saudi Arabia, Whittaker said. The company, the world’s largest oil-services provider, has been drilling in Saudi Arabia in a venture with a local company for 50 years.

Work in Iraq will require about 100 drilling rigs in total, according to Schlumberger estimates.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...-drilling.html

Continued U.S. presence urged for northern Iraq to secure oil sector

The U.S. military should maintain a major presence in the disputed oil capital in northern Iraq, according to a new report.

The report by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said the U.S. military must maintain a significant presence in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk even beyond 2011. Under a 2008 accord, the U.S. military was scheduled to leave Iraq by 2012.

"Maintaining a U.S. military presence in Kirkuk would provide vital crisis-management and confidence-building support in the province's sensitive security zones for years to come," the report, titled "Kirkuk in Transition," said.

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtri...0317_04_16.asp

Alliance-Making Toward Forming a New Iraqi Government – A Commentary

Iraqi political groups are engaged in attempts to form large coalitions to enable them to form the next government and to select a prime minister.

Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki's State of Law claims to be engaged in serious negotiation to merge with the Iraqi National Coalition headed by Ammar Al-Hakim. If united, the two lists will have close to 160 seats in parliament, or close to a majority in the 325 seat parliament.

In the meantime, Jalal Talabani announced that the Kurds are inclined to join an Al-Maliki-Hakim coalition. This would increase the number of seats to 210-220, a solid majority. The critical question is whether any Arab party would be prepared to meet the Kurdish demands with regard to Kirkuk, oil, the financing of the Kurdish militia, the Peshmerga, while keeping their political autonomy within the Iraqi federation.

At the same time, the Kurds view with suspicion Ayad Allawi's Al-Iraqiya, with its heavy Sunni contingency that is bound to be more hostile to the Kurdish autonomous aspirations that the Shi'a-oriented parties which as.pire to have their own autonomous region in the south with its rich oil resources.

Finally, members of Al-Iraqiya have expressed a preference of an Arab president which runs contrary to the Kurdish demands that Talabani should keep his post as president for a second term.

The State of Law maintains that Nouri Al-Maliki is the only candidate for the position of prime minister. This view is not necessarily shared by Al-Hakim, whose party demands that the next prime minister be selected either by a vote of the members of the coalition to be formed or by consensus. The two parties are still trying to hammer an agreement, and the issue of selecting a prime minister may prove to be the Achilles heels of the pending alliance.

Also there is the mercurial Muqtada Al-Sadr, who has a lot to say on the subject. His followers, the Sadrists, control about 40 seats of the 70 seats gained by the National Iraqi Coalition under Al-Hakim. They accuse Al-Maliki's Al-Dawa Party of arrogating power to itself and for stealing the wealth of the nation. Moreover, Al-Sadr has been adamant that he would not support a second term for Al-Maliki. Incidentally, Al-Sadr's supporters have announced that he was invited to visit Egypt and that arrangements are currently being made.

In the meantime, Allawi's Al-Iraqiya is lobbying both Tehran and Riyadh for support. The Iranian press reported that a delegation of Al-Iraqiya, headed by deputy prime minister Rafi' Al-Issawi, was in Tehran to meet with Iranian officials. Delegation spokeswoman and close Allawi aide Maysson Al-Damlooji declared that the parties held discussions "in order to create balanced relationship preserving the interests and sovereignty of both countries." She stressed that her party leaders "would not allow Iraq's territory or its airspace to be used to support any attack on Iran." This is certainly music to Iranian ears.

On the other side of the regional political spectrum, Iraq's outgoing vice president, a Sunni politician and a key leader in Al-Iraqiya, was received warmly by Saudi King Abdallah at his farm, an honor extended to heads of state. Upon emerging from the meeting, he declared that he had listened to "advice" from the Saudi king that would expedite the formation of a new government. He did not provide information on the nature of the advice, but Al-Hashemi is among those who have declared repeatedly that the next president of Iraq should be an Arab.

The process of forming a new government has not even begun in earnest, and there will be a lot of surprises until an agreement on a new government is sealed and signed.

For now, at least, much of what coming out of Baghdad falls in the realm of speculation.

http://www.thememriblog.org/blog_personal/en/26402.htm

Canadian firm to invest in 5,000 housing units in Baghdad

A Canadian firm is investing $299 million in 5,000 housing units in Baghdad.
“The units will compose a complete city including all the related services,” the Baghdad Investment Commission said in a release on Monday received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=130413

60 foreign firms propose to e.xecute railroad around Baghdad

More than 60 foreign firms have proposed to e.xecute a railroad around Baghdad.

“The firms are based in Germany, France, Italy, U.S., South Korea, Turkey, China, Canada, Britain, and Iran,” Iraqi Transportation Ministry said in a release on Sunday received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

It explained that the project will be among the biggest railroad systems in the Middle East and Arab world.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=130382

Investment companies claim not to contract with the current government until the formation of the next

Student and former Oil Minister Issam Chalabi, the current government and foreign companies wishing to invest in the oil sector in particular not to contract until a new government.

Chalabi said in a statement published by the independent press that the law and logic makes it imperative for any government terminated its mandate not to enter into long-term commitments limit the new government.

Chalabi stressed that there are big question marks on the government's failure to issue the current legislation on oil contracts, noting that the work is still continuing Law No. 97 of 1967

http://radionawa.com/Ar/NewsDetailN....642&LinkID=155

Dabbagh: the establishment of oil company comes to the center of the national economy

Announced the government spokesman, Ali Dabbagh, Monday, that the Council of Ministers approved the establishment of the center oil company (public company) with a capital of (100) billion dinars, in order to support the national economy in the oil sector.

Dabbagh said in a statement issued by his office that the approval for setting up a oil center (public company) with a capital of (100) billion dinars come for their company's effective contribution in support of the national economy in the oil sector through the development and production of crude oil and gas in the Central operations.

He added that the company will produce and processing of crude oil and the isolation of associated gas and storage and pumping of crude oil with the processing to the refineries and sites of consumption within Iraq and the export ports in addition to the production and processing of gas and button and make it to the labs of gas in its area of operations and to export ports.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=130409

Iraqi Gov’t forms new oil firm

The Iraqi Council of Ministers agreed to form the Middle Oil Company as a state-run firm with a capital of ID100 billion.

“The firm will support national economy,” Dr. Ali al-Dabbagh, the official spokesperson of Iraqi government, said in a release on Monday received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

He said that the firm will be responsible for oil production within the middle part of Iraq.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=130409