Thread: Archive News - Iraqi Dinar Think Tank - 06/10/2010 - 24/01/2011

Good News For Foreign Investors in Iraq

Iraq’s newly-appointed President, Jalal Talabani (pictured), is apparently using his full allowance of 15 days to formally appoint a new Prime Minister, thus allowing the haggling over the details to continue. And while Nouri al-Maliki remains the ‘agreed’ candidate, we should never under-estimate the Iraqi parliament’s ability to throw us a last-minute surprise.

If al-Maliki is appointed on Thursday as expected, he is then allowed 30 days in which to appoint a cabinet – based on progress thus far, we should not expect to see new name-plates on the doors much before Christmas.

Our information is that incumbent Oil Minister, Hussain al-Shahristani, will be re-appointed to that key position, but that other ministries are being hotly contested.
Also up for debate are the precise roles and powers of the National Council for Strategic Policy, to be headed by Ayad Allawi.

Foreign investors, meanwhile, can take some comfort from the creation of a new court to resolve disputes between foreign investors and Iraqi companies. If this is seen to operate in a fair and impartial manner, it should help to encourage foreign direct investment into the country.

http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/201...stors-in-iraq/

Maliki is planning to launch the initiative after the completion of industrial forming a new government

The adviser to Prime Minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki, on Thursday, for the latter would be immediately formed a new government initiative to improve the industrial production of the private sector.

Said Abdul Hussein Al Jabri told the Kurdish news agency (Rn) that "the Prime Minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki's initiative would be similar to the initiative of industrial agricultural work days after the new government and the adoption of the budget in 2011."

He pointed out that "the initiative will be launched on the impact of industrial success, which caused agricultural initiative in the previous phase, where agricultural activity returned to farmers after the government provide them with loans and the provision of agricultural machinery."

The Iraqi government has allocated $ 17 billion to address the agricultural sector, drought, and developed the Higher Committee for the initiative agricultural six axes for the advancement of agricultural reality distributed among the irrigation water, agricultural land, and plant production, animal production, and management of the agricultural sector, and the focus of agricultural lending, and government support.

Is due to the Iraqi government is formed after thirty days in accordance with the constitutional period, after he announced President Jalal Talabani, Maliki's mandate.

Iraq has suffered from the fragility of the factories in the work of private and government because of the invasion of imported goods.

And warned the Ministry of Finance earlier in the continued loss of Iraq to the domestic industry stressing the need to allocate government banks and the removal of subsidies by the government.

According to official reports that Iraq has lost since the past four years approximately $ 180 billion because of its reliance on imported goods.

http://www.aknews.com/ar/aknews/2/197706/

South Oil is preparing to sign a contract to develop "Saybah gas" with a Kuwaiti company

The director of the Southern Oil Company, on Thursday, near the signing of a contract for the development of gas field Saybah with Kuwait in May after winning the LG developed within the last round of licensing.

Zia said Jaafar al-Moussawi, told the Kurdish news agency (Rn) that "our company is now poised to sign a contract with ARG Kuwait Saybah gas field development, which will contribute to filling the need for local as well as gas for export to outside the country."

The branch that "the Southern Oil Company has attracted in recent times a large number of GCC companies from Kuwait, the UAE and Qatar to work in the Iraqi oil fields and developed to extract larger quantities of produced in the time being." Indicating that "the work of these companies will be supportive of foreign companies operating in the Iraqi oil fields south of the country. "

http://www.aknews.com/ar/aknews/2/197765/

France Telecom Mulling Iraqi Investment

France Telecom is reported to be in talks to purchase a stake in Iraq's Korek Telecom, in a deal that could give the Iraqi mobile operator an enterprise value of US$1.5 billion. A­lthough no deal has been finalised, France Telecom is interested in eventually securing a controlling stake in Korek, reports the Financial Times.

The potential for the company to invest in Iraq was originally suggested back in May when the company said it was interested in a stake in an unnamed Iraqi operator - but presumed at the time to be Korek Telecom.

The news also suggests that the long-running talks between Etisalat and Korek Telecom that started back in late 2008, and were still ongoing earlier this year, have finally broken down.

Korek was founded in 2000 by Sirwan Mustafa, who is its sole shareholder and nephew of Massoud Barzani, president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region.

The country has three operators, Zain, Asiacell and Korek Telecom. Asiacell is actually a consortium is comprised of Asiacell Iraq - the earlier license holder, Qatar's Qtel and investment banking group, MerchantBridge. Orascom owned the Iraqna network, but failed to get an operating license in the last round of auctions and had tried to set up a joint venture with Korek Telecom but that fell apart. The break-down has left Korek with a national license, but coverage which is limited to mainly the Northern region of the country. An expansion to national coverage would need the financial muscle of an outside partner. Iraqna was later sold to Zain.

The networks are also required to eventually list at least 25 percent of its shares on the Iraqi Stock Exchange as a condition of their licenses.

http://www.cellular-news.com/story/46627.php

New Iraqi Court to Protect Foreign Investors

Iraq inaugurated a new court on Wednesday to resolve disputes between foreign investors and Iraqi companies, according to a report from Khaleej Times.

In a ceremony attended by senior judges, prosecutors and judicial officials, Iraq’s most senior judge pronounced the new court open, and announced plans to establish similar courts in Mosul and Basra.

The court is the first of its kind in Iraq, and has been created as part of efforts to encourage investment in the country.

“Establishing this court strengthens the judiciary and makes it more specialised, and it also encourages investment into Iraq,” said Medhat al-Mahmud [Medhat al-Mahmoud], the head of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC).

The court will deal exclusively with legal disputes between foreign investors and Iraqi entities, whether they be the government or private-sector firms, according to SJC spokesman Abdul-Sattar Bayraqdar.

“The purpose of this is to encourage foreign investors that there are laws in Iraq that will protect their interests,” he told AFP.

The World Bank ranks Iraq 166th out of 183 countries in its “Doing Business 2011” survey of the ease of doing business around the world, the worst ranking of any country in the Middle East.

In particular, Iraq ranked 120th globally in terms of “protecting investors” and 141st in “enforcing contracts”. The World Bank scored it 4.3 out of 10 on its “strength of investor protection index”.

The survey notes that court proceedings to enforce contracts in Iraq require 51 procedures taking an average of 520 days. By contrast, Singapore, which topped the global ranking, requires 13 procedures which take 150 days.

http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/201...ign-investors/

Expect more entry to his country's companies to the Iraqi market to benefit from the investment law

Kuwaiti ambassador in Iraq on insured «that bilateral relations between the two countries currently have the best, and looked forward to development».

The insurer said in a statement carried by the agency «Voices of Iraq» by attending to the Oil and Gas Conference, which opened Thursday in Basra, that «his country's relations with Iraq, a distinct and at best have no need to wait for the future to improve».

Afterthought «but we are looking for the best in the development of this relationship at all levels». He explained that the economic level, a Kuwaiti company has managed to get on one of the licenses of gas, pointing out that this is «the first company to have a share holding in Iraq», indicating «good sign that it encourages other companies to come to Iraq».

He expected the insured «Kuwaiti companies entered more to the Iraqi market because of the existence of a law a good investment», returned to the law «of the best investment laws in the region».

In response to a question on the impact of the security situation in the delay of the entry of Kuwaiti companies, said insured: «The preoccupation with security is not an obstacle, despite taking into account, noting that his country has« convinced that this concern should not be an obstacle at this stage to prevent the entry of Kuwaiti companies to Iraqi investment market ».

He denied the Kuwaiti Ambassador, there are problems on the common fields, pointing out that «there are no real problems, but topics for discussion and decisions», pointing out that the meetings he held with officials of the Iraqi Oil Ministry has confirmed a positive atmosphere, demonstrating that that the officials of Iraqi oil set an example project between the two countries for the development of joint fields and upheld as an example and should be applied between Iraq and other countries that have common fields with him », as he put it.

And its forecast for oil investments and their impact on Iraq's oil production and its economic future, according to the believer that «There is no doubt that the positive impact of these investments on the economy of Iraq, especially that on the verge of significant investments and has oil reserves greater than the extracted».

And launched on Thursday on the floor of the exhibition Turkish port stronghold, the conference of oil and gas in the presence of hundreds of official figures, government officials and corporate managers and the ambassadors of Kuwait, Turkey, consuls British and American, as well as more than 30 Arab and foreign countries presented their products to large areas in the exhibition.

http://translate.googleusercontent.c...PrCymqwlRf3DtQ

UPDATE 2 - Iraq gas deal with Shell seen by year end - Official

A multibillion-dollar final deal between Iraq and Royal Dutch Shell to capture flared gas at southern oilfields is expected to be signed before the end of the year, a senior Iraqi oil official said on Friday.

The $12 billion deal, a venture between Iraq's South Gas Company, Shell and Japan's Mitsubishi, involves the capture of associated natural gas produced at fields near the oil hub of Basra, including Rumaila, Iraq's workhorse.

"We hope to sign the agreement after it is ratified by the cabinet before the end of the year," Ali Khudhier, director general of South Gas Company, told Reuters on the sidelines of an oil and gas conference in Basra.

Deputy Oil Minister Ahmed al-Shamma told reporters the final draft of the deal will be completed within 10 days. Last month Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said the contract would not include the supergiant 12.6-billion-barrel Majnoon oilfield which is being developed by Shell and Malaysian partner Petronas. Khudhier said associated gas from Majnoon could be developed by the South Gas Company.

"As long as there are gas facilities then why don't we utilize the project?" he said.

FINAL DEAL

Iraq's deal with Shell and Mitsubishi will cover Rumaila, being developed by BP and CNPC; Zubair, being worked on by ENI, Occidental and KOGAS; and West Qurna, whose two projects are in the hands of Exxon and Shell, and Lukoil and Statoil.

The joint venture known as the Basra Gas Company, will deal only with the South Oil Company when utilizing and buying the gas and will not have direct contact with the international firms developing the three fields, Khudhier said.

The Oil Ministry delayed finalising the deal in September because of legal issues about the joint venture.

Iraq flares 1 billion cubic feet of gas daily at its oilfields -- fuel it needs to generate electricity in a country suffering chronic power blackouts more than seven years after the U.S.-led invasion.

Shamma said earlier on Friday Iraq's current cabinet has the authority to sign the contract.

"The current government will continue its work until there is a new government," Khudhier said.

Iraqi politicians have been jockeying for position in a new government since an election in March that failed to produce a clear winner. Two weeks ago the squabbling factions reached a power-sharing deal and on Thursday Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was given 30 days to pick a new cabinet.

Meanwhile, initial production from Iraq's Siba gas field in Basra is expected within two to three years, Khudhier said.

Iraq earlier this month signed an initial deal with Turkey's TPAO and Kuwait Energy Company to develop the field.

http://af.reuters.com/article/energy...BrandChannel=0

Iraq set to discount import tariffs on oil equipment: minister

Iraq plans to introduce at the beginning of January discounts of as much as 20% on oil equipment import tariffs to support international oil company activity in the country, transportation minister Amer Abdul-Jabbar Ismael said Friday.

The discounts are in the final stages of preparation and will be approved by the cabinet in December, Ismael told Platts on the sidelines of an oil and gas conference in Basrah.

The discount, which will be exclusive to oil companies investing in Iraq, may be as much as 20%, with the exact number to be announced next month. He did not say what the current tariff was.

Ismael said one of the goals is to encourage the use of Umm Qasr port instead of land routes through neighboring countries. Oil companies have complained about the limited transit routes into Iraq and have charged that bureaucracy impedes everything from entry visas to supplies.

"Now Iraqi ports are ready to use any big ship," he said. "We never like to use other ports of other countries. This is no good for Iraq."

Vessels carrying supplies for the oil sector will be given first docking rights into Iraqi ports, Ismael said.

He also offered to make storage space available at Umm Qasr, railways for transporting equipment and supplies to project areas and the use of ministry trucks at a special discount, which he did not detail.

Iraq has awarded 14 upstream contracts -- 11 oil and three gas -- to foreign oil companies since November 2009 in an effort to increase oil production capacity to more than 12.5 million b/d and jump-start the gas sector.

Ismael also said the transportation ministry had bought two new tug boats with 5,200 horsepower, which would enable oil tankers to dock more quickly at oil terminals al-Basra and Khor al-Amaya and would also reduce the potential for weather-related delays as the tugs would be able to operate in poor conditions. Two additional tugs will be delivered next year, he said.

Iraq moves 80% of its oil exports through northern Gulf terminals al-Basra and Khor al-Amaya, both of which suffered damage in the 1980-1988 war with Iran and in the 1991 war after the invasion of Kuwait. Only 5% of exports from the south are from Khor al-Amaya, due to its smaller size and more extensive damage.

http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetaile...ed/Oil/8226429

Saddam Hussein's Yacht Back In Iraq






Saddam Hussein's luxury yacht, shown here in Greece in 2009, has gold-plated bathroom fixtures, a helipad and its own minisubmarine.

A 269-foot yacht commissioned by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 1981 has finally made its way home after spending decades on loan.

Iraq was at war with Iran when the yacht was finally finished in the 1980s, so Hussein never even had a chance to use it. He apparently lent the yacht, which was built in Denmark for about $25 million, to the royal families of Oman, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

Then, in 2008, the yacht, with its gold-plated bathroom fixtures, a helipad and minisubmarine, went up for sale by a company partly owned by the King of Jordan. The Iraqi government fought the move and last year won the case in a French appeals court.

The yacht was then sent to Greece for renovations, says Iraqi Transportation Minister Amer Abdul Jabar Ismail, and then sailed to the southern port of Basra. The boat is currently the property of Iraq's Ministry of Transportation.

Plans for the boat are still unclear. Ismail says he wants it to be a museum. Other officials want to sell it. But people in Basra told NPR they doubt they'd ever see any of that money, that the new government taking shape in Iraq has the potential to be just as plutocratic as Saddam's.

As he plucks some trash that's stuck to the bottom of his shoe and hands it to an aide, Ismail says it's about time he had his turn. Under Saddam, he worked as an engineer on oil tankers. He remembers one day when his tanker pulled up next to one of Saddam's other yachts.

"The captain of this Saddam yacht told me, 'Please, I need some assist, we need repair.' I speak, 'Yes,' because I can't refuse," Ismail says.
But then one of Saddam's henchmen appeared. After that, Ismail was detained and interrogated for an entire day.

Ismail eventually was let go — with a threat: " 'If I see you again, I kill you,' " Ismail says he was told.

Now, Ismail says, the tables have turned.

"But now, I stay here — in Saddam's position. You see? Now I receive Saddam's salon, Saddam's bedroom," he says. "I read in the Koran. I sleep in the bed. I use bathroom. I use everything here."

http://www.npr.org/2010/11/26/131610...t-back-in-iraq

Senior Economist: the lack of strategic vision to the lists of parliamentary and lack of vision of economic reason to delay adoption of the annual budget

The expert stressed that the economic peace Sumaisem issue of the budget is a challenge for any parliament, because the budget must be made by a law of the Council of Representatives.

The Sumaisem told the independent press (Iba), the past years did not witness the adoption of the budget in his time, although the competent authority is the Ministry of Finance submitted the budget in the eighth month in the hope it to be passed in the tenth month, but the issue was to last until the fifth month of the new year where continue discussions on the budget at the rate of 80-10 months, which is relatively large.

She explained that the reason for this is due to several factors, notably the absence of strategic vision to the lists of parliamentary and also lack the economic vision of these blocks, so do not know whether the violation or matching them with the paragraphs of the proposed budget.

They pointed out that Iraq now faced a challenge of another kind because of the delay in the formation Alihump and the parliament, she wondered how the government will start the new year and the parliament did not approve the budget until now.

She had previously put forward questions about who will adopt the budget and whether the current government to have more powers than it recognizes the new budget is postponed until a new government.

She noted that there are important issues in the budget, the government resolved not to mention the grades of new and support policies, and how will these policies and wage social service and support derivatives and the ration card, wondering whether they will be things according to the government program the previous or subsequent Will reflect the vision blocks or the next government, or is it see a list of specific.

Stressed Sumaisem that these questions are all challenges to the decision-maker who will approve the budget, it is expected adoption of the budget in accordance with the principle of satisfaction and not according to a certain vision.

She said the delay adoption of the budget would cause confusion in the work of state institutions, as the joints of the state how it goes and where Siotiha the necessary funding.

Indicated she did not see there Akatratha from the relevant authorities, which should put this matter before it and take a real role.

http://www.ipairaq.com/index.php?nam...onomy&id=32927