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

'Iraqi oil output to reach 8mn bpd by 2017'
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/153149.html


"I expect we will reach a capacity of 8 million barrels per day within the next six-seven years," said Thamir Ghadhban, who is now an advisor to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Iraq, which came under a US-led attack in 2003, is currently producing roughly 2.5 million bpd.

The country has signed deals with international oil companies following auctions last year that could in theory increase the capacity to 12 million bpd by 2017.

Undeveloped infrastructure and security concerns are the key obstacles preventing Iraq from reaching an output of 12 million bpd, analysts say.

Iraq has struggled in the past years to push its output even close to the 3 million bpd it saw in the late 1980s.

Last month, a Reuters poll suggested that Iraq's crude oil output would rise to 2.8 million bpd by 2011 and reach only 4.6 million bpd by 2015.

Iraqi oil reserves looking bullish
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Reso...1831291304343/

LEXINGTON, Mass., Dec. 2 (UPI) -- If all things go according to production plans in Iraq, oil production there could outpace Saudi Arabia within roughly seven years, an analyst said.

Supermajors Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil said they could eventually produce around 2.8 million barrels of oil per day from the West Qurna-1 field in Iraq.

Sameul Ciszuk, a Middle East energy analyst at IHS Global Insight, was quoted by Emirati news agency The National as saying much of Iraq's quoted potential is based on technology used more than 30 years ago.

He said that with modern technology, both companies were able to determine there were more recoverable resources locked in Iraq than previously thought. The West-Qurna levels are 22 percent higher than earlier estimates, the report adds.

New revisions of estimated reserves in Iraq led the country's oil minister to say in October that there were around 143 billion barrels of oil in Iraq.

Ciszuk said if all developments go ahead as planned, Iraq could be producing 13 million bpd at some point after 2017, beating Saudi Arabia by 1 million bpd.

Syria, Iraq Hold Talks on Planned Oil Pipeline, AlWatan Reports
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-1...n-reports.html

Syria and Iraq have completed technical talks about a planned pipeline for transporting Iraqi oil to Mediterranean ports, AlWatan daily reported, citing an official speaking with the Kurdistan Independent News Agency.

Iraqi officials will report on the discussions within three days, the Damascus-based newspaper reported, citing comments by an adviser to the Iraqi government, Salam Al-Quraishi, talking to AKNEWS, the Kurdish news agency. The results of the talks were positive, AlWatan quoted Al-Quraishi as telling AKNEWS.

The 225-kilometer (140-mile) pipeline would transport Iraqi crude across Syria to the Mediterranean Sea and have an export capacity of about 1.7 million barrels of oil a day, he said.

Courting foreign business
http://www.iraqoilreport.com/busines...business-5204/

Investors are learning detail’s of Iraq’s newly established foreign commerce court intended to provide legal recourse for investors and, consequently, attract more foreign funds to the country.

“After opening Iraq’s economy (to foreign investors), it was necessary to establish courts specialized in commercial issues as encouraging investment,” said Judge Amir Kadhim al-Shammari, the chief justice of Iraq’s supreme court, who will also head the investment court.

The court’s effectiven…

U.S. Seeks End of Iraq Trade Sanctions at Biden-Led UN Meeting
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-1...n-meeting.html

The Obama administration wants to use a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, to be chaired by Vice President Joe Biden, to end trade sanctions on Iraq that were a response to Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

The U.S. is seeking agreement at the Dec. 15 meeting on three draft resolutions that would write a “new chapter” in Iraq’s history, according to Ambassador Claude Heller of Mexico, a Security Council member. “It is to show there is a new Iraq,” Heller said.

One resolution would lift trade sanctions imposed in 1991 to prevent Iraq from acquiring materials that could be used for chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. While no such weapons were found after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 toppled Hussein, the sanctions have restricted Iraq’s ability to obtain certain chemicals and other goods needed to develop its agriculture and industry.

The two other resolutions would give Iraq a six-month extension of UN protection of $800 million in oil revenue from potential creditors and would close the remaining accounts of the oil-for-food aid program, which allowed Hussein’s regime to sell $64 billion worth of oil from 1996 to 2003 to obtain food and medicines.

‘Very Real Progress’

“It’s an important opportunity for the international community to recognize the very real progress that Iraq has made, both in terms of government formation as well as the significant steps that have been taken to terminate its Chapter VII obligations,” U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice told reporters on Dec. 2.

The Security Council adopted resolutions following Iraq’s Kuwait invasion under the authority of Chapter VII of the UN charter, which authorized the sanctions and the military action that liberated Kuwait.

The resolution on trade sanctions faces resistance from China, a veto-holding permanent member of the Security Council, according to Yang Tao, political director of China’s mission to the UN.

Yang said China wants to see the Iraqi government accept a higher level of scrutiny from the International Atomic Energy Agency before the sanctions are lifted. This so-called additional protocol would give the Vienna-based UN nuclear watchdog agency access to more information and sites in Iraq.

“We think it is better to let Iraq’s congress approve the additional protocol first, to show their sincerity, legally,” Yang said. “We have no questions about the sincerity of the Iraqi government but, legally, we need something.”

Extension Sought

Iraq’s government won’t get the one-year extension of UN protection it sought for the Development Fund for Iraq, an account held by Paris-based BNP Paribas SA, the world’s biggest bank by assets. The fund, into which Iraq deposits 5 percent of all oil revenue, was established after the 1991 Gulf War to pay off debts incurred by the Hussein regime.

The Security Council extended the fund’s immunity from creditors for a year last December and said then that it was the last time such protection would be granted. In late October, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zabari made the case for another year of immunity in a report to the Security Council that cited the delay in forming a government following elections in March and concern that previously “unidentified commercial creditors may attempt to seize Iraqi funds and assets.”

At a Security Council meeting last month, the U.S. and the U.K. resisted the requested extension of immunity, then compromised on a six-month period in acknowledgment of the delay in forming a new government.

Biden has focused on Iraq since the Obama administration took office in January 2009. The U.S., which holds the presidency of the Security Council in December, has invited leaders with similar rank to Biden’s to the Security Council meeting.

UPDATE 2-Iraq gas deal with Shell seen by year end -official
http://af.reuters.com/article/energy...101126?sp=true

* Final draft for $12 bln deal to be completed in 10 days

* Deal also with Japan's Mitsubishi

* Iraq waiting for legal advisers to review draft

* Contract will not include Majnoon oilfield

(Recasts, adds quotes, details)

By Rania El Gamal

BASRA, Iraq, Nov 26 (Reuters) - A multibillion-dollar final deal between Iraq and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote) 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 (8058.T: Quote), 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. [ID:nLDE6AP0LO]

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. [ID:nLDE69U07P]

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 (BP.L: Quote) and CNPC; Zubair, being worked on by ENI (ENI.MI: Quote), Occidental (OXY.N: Quote) and KOGAS (036460.KS: Quote); and West Qurna, whose two projects are in the hands of Exxon (XOM.N: Quote) and Shell, and Lukoil (LKOH.MM: Quote) and Statoil (STL.OL: Quote).

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. [ID:nLDE68Q1DR]

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.

Welfare funding runs out in Iraq
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/finan.../D9JKI18O0.htm

Iraq's parliament speaker says the oil-rich nation has run out of money to pay for widows' benefits, farm crops and other programs for the poor.

Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi told lawmakers Sunday that parliament would push the Iraqi government for answers on where the money has gone.

Irritated lawmakers demanded answers. Parliament members have each collected more than $100,000 so far this year in salaries and stipends, though they have only met four times since March amid the deadlock over forming a new government.

A Finance Ministry official said the estimated $1 billion social care budget has been emptied for 2010. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraq's lawmakers headed back to parliament Sunday for what was expected to be a lackluster session that won't address the key decisions on who will run the new government.

Instead, Iraq's 325 lawmakers were expected only to discuss internal parliamentary bylaws and forming legislative committees during the session that began in the early afternoon.

It is only the fourth meeting of parliament since lawmakers were elected in March.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said it likely will be several more days before President Jalal Talabani formally asks Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to begin forming the new government and picking cabinet ministers.

A power-sharing agreement designed by Iraq's Kurdish leaders has assured that al-Maliki, a Shiite, will remain prime minister even though his State of Law political bloc did not win the most votes in the March 7 parliamentary vote.

A Sunni-backed but secular alliance known as Iraqiya won the most seats in the election, and its leader, Shiite former prime minister Ayad Allawi, worked bitterly against al-Maliki all summer to prevent him from forming a government.

Allawi was never able to gain enough support to put himself in the prime minister's office, however, and Iraqiya signed off on the power-sharing agreement.

The agreement returns both al-Maliki and Talabani to power and gives Iraqiya the parliament speaker's post, which went to Sunni lawmaker Osama al-Nujaifi.

Allawi was meant to head a council that is intended to serve as a counterweight to al-Maliki, but he has said that he will not take a post in the new government, calling into question role of the council.

Al-Dabbagh said Iraqiya has a "very important" role in the new government but did not know what Allawi intended to do.

"There are no positive signals from him," al-Dabbagh said.

After Talabani officially asks al-Maliki to form the government, the prime minister has 30 days to assemble his cabinet -- a painstaking process in Iraq's complicated political map.

Lawmaker Bassem Sharif, a member of the Shiite Fadhila party that is allied with al-Maliki, said the blocs were still trying to decide how many minister's jobs are available -- and how to divvy them up among competing factions. The so-called sovereignty posts such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Ministry of Oil are considered the most prestigious and powerful.

Iraqi Cabinet Approves 93 Trillion-Dinar Spending Plan for 2011
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-1...-for-2011.html

Iraq’s cabinet approved a 93 trillion-dinar ($79.5 billion) federal draft budget for 2011, an increase of about 9 percent on the previous year’s spending plan, the government’s official spokesman said.

The budget is based on an oil price of $73 a barrel and average crude output of 2.25 million barrels a day, according to the statement. It forecasts government revenue at 78.7 trillion dinars, leaving a deficit of 14.3 trillion dinars that will be covered by borrowing, sales of assets and other income, Ali al- Dabbagh said in an e-mailed statement today.

Lawmakers still need to approve the document. The process has been delayed by the eight-month political deadlock that followed inconclusive parliamentary elections in March. Iraq took its first steps to form a new government last month when Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki secured a second term and was tasked with choosing the new cabinet.

A total of 29 trillion dinars was set aside for investment next year, and 64 trillion for operational expenses, Al-Dabbagh said in the statement. The oil production forecast includes 150,000 barrels of crude exported daily from Kurdistan, he said.

Supplementary payments of 1.6 trillion dinars was set aside for oil and gas-producing provinces, which will be allocated according to their output, according to the spokesman.

Iraq has awarded 12 oil-service contracts and three gas licenses as part of a plan to boost production. Iraq has official oil reserves of 143.1 billion barrels, excluding the northern region of Kurdistan, and depends on oil revenue to fund about 95 percent of its budget.

The 2010 budget of 84.7 trillion dinars was based on an oil price of $63.50 a barrel, and forecast a deficit of 22.9 billion trillion.

Iraq Ctrl Bk Governor: Forex Reserves At $50B; Dinar Stable-Report
http://www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZW20101206000030

BEIRUT (Zawya Dow Jones)--The Central Bank of Iraq has been able to build foreign currency reserves of $50 billion in order to support the Iraqi dinar which has become one of the stable currencies in the region, pan-Arab Al Hayat daily reports Monday citing central bank governor Sinan Al Shabibi.

The central bank has developed a coherent and rational monetary policy that has achieved financial stability in the country, Shabibi said according to the paper.

Mudhir Mohammed Saleh, the central bank's advisor said that the central bank has eased procedures for cash sales in its daily auctions of foreign currencies starting from this week.

Iraqi Prime Minister Says New Government Delayed
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/...111748479.html

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has indicated the formation of the country's new government will be closer to the December 25 deadline than first thought.

Maliki had vowed to announce the formation of the new government by December 15, but said Saturday he is still seeking nominations from top politicians.

Prime Minister Maliki, a Shi'ite Muslim, is forming a new government at the request of President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, after the parliamentary elections in March failed to produce an outright winner.

The new government aims to end an eight-month political stalemate by uniting Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds, and ending the rival tensions.

The challenges facing an Iraqi government include the stagnant economy and neutralizing terrorist activity after U.S. troops leave next year.