Thread: Iraqi/Dinar news until March 1st, 2007

Loki;170485]Iraqi Cabinet members approve draft version of oil law




An oil tanker is seen in Basra this month. Iraq is nearing passage of a bill that would manage its vast oil wealth. (ESSAM AL-SUDANI/AFP/Getty Images)

By Robert H. Reid, Associated Press | February 27, 2007

BAGHDAD -- The Iraqi Cabinet approved a draft law yesterday to manage the country's vast oil industry and distribute its wealth among the population -- a major breakthrough in US efforts to press the country's Shi'ite, Sunni, and Kurdish groups to reach agreements to achieve stability.
Parliament will take up the measure when it reconvenes early next month after a recess. With all major parties endorsing the bill, approval is likely -- although some politicians predicted a vigorous debate on some of the details.

.....

SO WHO IS IT??


1778 9010022 OPAL H9EQ General Cargo Ship 7001 1991 07 Panama
1779 8887507 OPAL UHAE General Cargo Ship 4903 1972 07 Russia
1780 8508993 OPAL 9WEQ8 Tender (Unspecified) N/A 1986 03 Malaysia
1781 9160499 OPAL V2CK Container Ship 5250 1997 12 Antigua & Barbuda
1782 7612187 OPAL S6FO6 Oil Products Tanker 31375 1979 06 Singapore
1783 7714909 OPAL Oil Products Tanker 1200 1977 10 Unknown
1784 7826661 OPAL P3JX7 General Cargo Ship 9408 1981 02 Cyprus
1785 9044889 OPAL General Cargo Ship 350 1993 04 Turkey
1786 7911272 OPAL SQNA Passenger Ship 81 1981 06 Poland
1787 7608174 OPAL 1 Fishing Vessel N/A 1976 04 Philippines
1788 9318498 OPAL LEADER Vehicles Carrier 12300 2007 02 Bahamas
1789 8210388 OPAL NAREE HSGN Bulk Carrier 28780 1982 04 Thailand
1790 9229427 OPAL QUEEN H9AI Crude Oil Tanker 107181 2001 03 Panama
1791 7301972 OPAL RAY 9HKZ4 Vehicles Carrier 8678 1973 03 Malta
1792 7523116 OPAL STONE D6BE3 Oil Products Tanker 64900 1978 02 Comoros
1793 9276482 OPAL STREAM HPOB Bulk Carrier 76350 2003 09 Panama
1794 9188879 OPALE EXPRESS FOAZ Passenger Ship 145 1998 11 Guadeloupe
1795 9172844 OPALIA MZFC4 Crude Oil Tanker 302193 1999 11 Isle of Man

Originally Posted by shotgunsusie

they removed my post. now theres fairness. lol
et tu rolclub???

You know I love your news. So that is all we here at RC need to know. Forget the rest. RC doesnt need to know that. Just your News.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S.-led strike forces seized suspected Shiite death squad bosses Tuesday in raids that tested the fragile bonds between the government and a powerful militia faction allowing the Baghdad security crackdown to move ahead.

he sweeps through the Sadr City slum were part of highly sensitive forays into areas loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who has ridiculed the 2-week-old campaign for failing to halt bombings by suspected Sunni insurgents against Shiite civilians.

Al-Sadr withdrew his powerful Mahdi Army militia from checkpoints and bases under intense government pressure to let the security push go forward. But the U.S.-backed government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki also worries that al-Sadr could pull his support if he feels his militiamen are being squeezed in Baghdad.

The pre-dawn raids appeared to highlight a strategy of pinpoint strikes in Sadr City rather than the flood of soldiers sent into some Sunni districts.

Bombings have not slackened off, with at least 10 people killed in blasts around Baghdad on Tuesday. However, an apparent success of the clampdown can be measured in the morgues: a sharp drop in the number of bullet-riddled bodies found in the streets of the capital, victims of sectarian death squads.

The number of bodies found this month in Baghdad — most shot and showing signs of torture — has dropped by nearly 50 percent to 494 as of Monday, compared with 954 in January. The figure stood at 1,222 in December, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press.

"We have seen a decrease in the past three weeks — a pretty radical decrease," said Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, the No. 2 U.S. commander in
Iraq.

Many Sunnis have long alleged that most of killings were by Shiite militias, such as the Mahdi Army or rogue elements within the Shiite-led police.

The U.S. military said the raids targeted "the leadership of several rogue" Mahdi Army cells that "direct and perpetrate sectarian murder" — an apparent reference to execution-style slayings and torture. At least 16 people were arrested.

"My sons and wife were very terrified," complained Muhannad Mihbas, 30, who said his brother and six cousins were taken in the sweeps. "Does the security plan mean arresting innocent people and scaring civilians at night?"

Odierno declined to comment on whether there were special tactics governing the Sadr City sweeps. "We will go after anyone who we feel is working against the government of Iraq," he said.

U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell told Al-Arabiya television that forces "will increase our operations in the coming days," but noted that the security crackdown in the capital should continue until at least October.

Added Odierno: "We will keep at this until the people feel safe in their neighborhoods."

Also Tuesday, a roadside bomb southwest of the capital killed three U.S. soldiers assigned to a unit based in Baghdad, the U.S. military said. A fourth Ameridan soldier was killed near Diwaniyah, a mostly Shiite town 80 miles south of Baghdad.

Iraqi authorities, meanwhile, have arrested a suspect in the attempted assassination of Shiite Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi, an aide said.

The aide said the arrest was made after reviewing security camera video from Monday's blast, which ripped through an awards ceremony at the ministry of public works and killed at least 10 people. Abdul-Mahdi suffered leg injuries.

The aide declined to give any further details about the arrest or the suspect. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.

Abdul-Mahdi is one of two vice presidents. The other is Sunni.

In the southern Qadisiya province, Iraqi security forces said they captured 157 suspects linked to a shadowy armed cell called the Soldiers of Heaven, or Jund al-Samaa. The group was involved in a fierce gunbattle last month with Iraqi forces who accused it of planning to kill Shiite clerics and others in the belief it would hasten the return of the "Hidden Imam" — a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad who disappeared as a child in the 9th century. Shiites believe he will return one day to bring justice.

A U.S. Apache helicopter was shot down in the fighting, and two U.S. crew members were killed.

Meanwhile, state television reported that 18 boys were killed when a car bomb exploded in a park in Ramadi, and Iraqi and international officials were quick to deplore the slaughter. But questions about key details of the report emerged just as quickly.

Iraqi police and state TV said the attack occurred Tuesday. Later, police said it happened Monday.

The confusion grew deeper following an announcement by U.S. forces that 30 civilians and one Iraqi soldier were injured by flying debris Tuesday when troops intentionally detonated 15 bags of explosives found in Ramadi.

The news first broke after nightfall when it is too dangerous for local journalists to check the reports independently in Ramadi, a Sunni insurgent stronghold 70 miles west of Baghdad. Western reporters normally tour the area only as part of military patrols. Much of Ramadi is under effective insurgent control, and even the police have difficulty establishing the facts in bombings and assassinations.

Death squad leaders seized in Baghdad - Yahoo! News

Al-Qaeda will come back to haunt US if it fails in Iraq: Rice Tue Feb 27, 4:53 PM ET



WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned a doubting US Congress Tuesday that Al-Qaeda will "come back to haunt us" if the United States does not pursue its effort to stabilize Iraq.

"I believe that everyday -- and I don't want to be hyperbolic but frankly every hour of every day -- there are Al-Qaeda forces ... that are trying to figure out how to attack us," Rice told a Senate panel.

"If they have a safe haven, a sophisticated and central place like Iraq, I believe strongly that that's going to enhance their capability to do so," she said.

Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates underwent a grilling Tuesday before the Senate Appropriations Committee which is considering Bush's request for an additional 99.6 billion dollars for the "global war on terrorism" -- including in Iraq and Afghanistan -- for the next six months.

The opposition-controlled Congress is considering several pieces of legislation designed to hasten a US pullout from Iraq nearly four years after President George W. Bush ordered the invasion of that country to topple Saddam Hussein.

At Tuesday's hearing, Senators repeatedly questioned the government's rationale for remaining in Iraq amid sectarian violence that borders on civil war.

Rice responded that a "premature" US withdrawal from Iraq would allow Al-Qaeda elements active in the country to take advantage of the violent chaos that would ensue.

"If you were to get the kind of instability in the region that might come from an Iraq that was unstable and unable to control its borders, unable to control its relationships with its neighbors," she said, it would create "a kind of breeding ground for the kind of terrorism that would come back to haunt us here at home".

"I think the link between the maturation of of Al-Qaeda in the center of the Middle East and our own security is clear, because Al-Qaeda is obviously the greatest threat to our homeland," she said.

Originally Posted by PAn8tv

Iraq maps strategy to revive oil fields
Parliament must still approve the plan, which would open the door to foreign investment.
By Christian Berthelsen and Tina Susman, Times Staff Writers
February 27, 2007

BAGHDAD — After months of contentious negotiations over the postwar spoils of Iraq's most valuable natural resource, the government announced Monday night that it had approved a draft plan to ramp up oil production and share the proceeds.

The agreement by the Iraqi Cabinet was touted as a major breakthrough. It must still be approved by parliament, but because all of Iraq's vested ethnic and regional interests are represented in the Cabinet, the deal was viewed as having overcome a significant hurdle.

The United States has long wanted to capitalize on Iraq's oil, especially as a means of paying for the country's reconstruction. Oil's importance was reiterated in the Iraq Study Group report released in December.

The agreement would open the door to international investment in Iraq's oil industry — a bonanza for foreign companies — and produce revenue for a nation badly in need of money to rebuild.

Iraq's oil riches lie predominantly in the Kurdish-controlled north and the Shiite-controlled south. Reaching an agreement essentially required both factions to be willing to share their bounty with Sunnis in the middle — a particularly painful prospect as Sunnis under Saddam Hussein controlled the entire government.

But there were also more complex questions of provincial sovereignty versus centralized national power.

Kurds, who are pushing a referendum on withdrawal from Iraq, wanted more control over their ability to strike contracts with foreign firms and spend the profits as they see fit.

According to U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad's office, all revenue from oil sales would go into a single national account, but all regions and provinces would have a seat on an energy policymaking body, and provinces would receive shares of revenue and have control over how they spent it.

"This is a significant political achievement because leaders representing all of Iraq's communities have demonstrated that they can pull together to resolve difficult issues of vital national importance," Khalilzad said in a statement.

In Washington, White House spokesman Tony Snow called a new oil law the "key linchpin" in Iraq's recovery.

During a visit to Baghdad this month, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Iraqi leaders to pass the law, saying "it's really critical" to show signs of national reconciliation.

The oil sector in Iraq has not been in full-scale development since the 1980s, and production has fallen far short of its potential because of government neglect of the industry's infrastructure and attacks on installations. Fewer than a quarter of its fields have been developed; production volume fell by 8% in 2005.

Even so, it is the overwhelming source of revenue in Iraq and is expected to bring in $31 billion this year, based on projected exports of 1.7 million barrels a day at a price of $50 a barrel.

It was unclear what concessions finally led to the compromise, and the precise terms of the deal were not immediately available. The U.S. has been pressuring the Iraqi leadership for months to break the impasse, and one Sunni politician said Monday night that the deal had been brokered by Khalilzad himself.

Iraqi parliament members were cautious about the plan Monday night, noting that no details had been released. Still, most agreed that a Cabinet compromise was a good sign.

"Definitely, if there is a Cabinet accordance, this would be a good key for a future accordance in the parliament," said Qusai Abdul-Wahab, a Shiite lawmaker.

Others predicted a tougher battle for the proposal on its way to becoming law.

"I think there will be great opposition to it in the parliament," said Rashid al-Azzawi of the Sunni parliamentary bloc known as the Iraqi Accordance Front.

Some analysts say the law also will be viewed dimly as another way for the U.S. to get its hands on the country's oil.

Antonia Juhasz, an analyst at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington who has written extensively on the economic aspects of the invasion of Iraq, said throwing open the oil industry to foreign investment — which no doubt would include U.S. interests — would only heighten Iraqis' distrust of the United States.

"It's a critical law that is being rushed through Iraq's government at a time when the government is highly susceptible to external pressure," she said.

"Most people in Iraq assume the U.S. invasion was about oil. When the people of Iraq learn that the majority of their oil fields are being turned over to foreign private production … it worries me. I wouldn't want to be a soldier on the ground when the law passes."
*

Bingo, this is one of the reasons we should see an RV! Look, were taking most of your profits for a while. In the mean time. We are giving you back the money you all lost!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's a win win situation.....................

Originally Posted by Jola

Loki;170485]Iraqi Cabinet members approve draft version of oil law




An oil tanker is seen in Basra this month. Iraq is nearing passage of a bill that would manage its vast oil wealth. (ESSAM AL-SUDANI/AFP/Getty Images)

By Robert H. Reid, Associated Press | February 27, 2007

BAGHDAD -- The Iraqi Cabinet approved a draft law yesterday to manage the country's vast oil industry and distribute its wealth among the population -- a major breakthrough in US efforts to press the country's Shi'ite, Sunni, and Kurdish groups to reach agreements to achieve stability.
Parliament will take up the measure when it reconvenes early next month after a recess. With all major parties endorsing the bill, approval is likely -- although some politicians predicted a vigorous debate on some of the details.

.....

SO WHO IS IT??


1778 9010022 OPAL H9EQ General Cargo Ship 7001 1991 07 Panama
1779 8887507 OPAL UHAE General Cargo Ship 4903 1972 07 Russia
1780 8508993 OPAL 9WEQ8 Tender (Unspecified) N/A 1986 03 Malaysia
1781 9160499 OPAL V2CK Container Ship 5250 1997 12 Antigua & Barbuda
1782 7612187 OPAL S6FO6 Oil Products Tanker 31375 1979 06 Singapore
1783 7714909 OPAL Oil Products Tanker 1200 1977 10 Unknown
1784 7826661 OPAL P3JX7 General Cargo Ship 9408 1981 02 Cyprus
1785 9044889 OPAL General Cargo Ship 350 1993 04 Turkey
1786 7911272 OPAL SQNA Passenger Ship 81 1981 06 Poland
1787 7608174 OPAL 1 Fishing Vessel N/A 1976 04 Philippines
1788 9318498 OPAL LEADER Vehicles Carrier 12300 2007 02 Bahamas
1789 8210388 OPAL NAREE HSGN Bulk Carrier 28780 1982 04 Thailand
1790 9229427 OPAL QUEEN H9AI Crude Oil Tanker 107181 2001 03 Panama
1791 7301972 OPAL RAY 9HKZ4 Vehicles Carrier 8678 1973 03 Malta
1792 7523116 OPAL STONE D6BE3 Oil Products Tanker 64900 1978 02 Comoros
1793 9276482 OPAL STREAM HPOB Bulk Carrier 76350 2003 09 Panama
1794 9188879 OPALE EXPRESS FOAZ Passenger Ship 145 1998 11 Guadeloupe
1795 9172844 OPALIA MZFC4 Crude Oil Tanker 302193 1999 11 Isle of Man

I know eh? I was thinking the same...lol
Good one!

Announcement No.(873)

D.G. of Foreign Exchange Control

The 873 daily currency auction was held in the Central Bank of Iraq day Wednesday 2007/ 2/ 28 so the results were as follows :

Details
NotesNumber of banks10-----
Auction price selling dinar / US $1280-----
Auction price buying dinar / US $----------
Amount sold at auction price (US $)39.520.000-----
Amount purchased at Auction price (US $) -----
Total offers for buying (US $)39.520.000-----
Total offers for selling (US $)----------

Have this one on me folks. See you around.

Iraqi parliament approves new oil draft law
MENAFN - 28/02/2007


(MENAFN) The Iraqi Oil Minister announced that the parliament collectively agreed on the oil draft law that permits foreign companies to invest and work in the Iraqi oil reserves and projects, the Iraq Directory reported.

Though the US expects a fall to 1.3 million barrels a day in the oil production, the government assures that the new law will guarantee a fair share of the profits to all Iraqis in all of the 18 provinces, said the minister.

He added that the utilization of the Iraqi oil reserves will be determined by open tenders provided by the ministry and based on model contracts.

http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story...ryId=1093144717

Originally Posted by Adster

Have this one on me folks. See you around.

Iraqi parliament approves new oil draft law
MENAFN - 28/02/2007


(MENAFN) The Iraqi Oil Minister announced that the parliament collectively agreed on the oil draft law that permits foreign companies to invest and work in the Iraqi oil reserves and projects, the Iraq Directory reported.

Though the US expects a fall to 1.3 million barrels a day in the oil production, the government assures that the new law will guarantee a fair share of the profits to all Iraqis in all of the 18 provinces, said the minister.

He added that the utilization of the Iraqi oil reserves will be determined by open tenders provided by the ministry and based on model contracts.

http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story...ryId=1093144717

YOU THA MAN ADSTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by Adster

Have this one on me folks. See you around.

Iraqi parliament approves new oil draft law
MENAFN - 28/02/2007


(MENAFN) The Iraqi Oil Minister announced that the parliament collectively agreed on the oil draft law that permits foreign companies to invest and work in the Iraqi oil reserves and projects, the Iraq Directory reported.

Though the US expects a fall to 1.3 million barrels a day in the oil production, the government assures that the new law will guarantee a fair share of the profits to all Iraqis in all of the 18 provinces, said the minister.

He added that the utilization of the Iraqi oil reserves will be determined by open tenders provided by the ministry and based on model contracts.

http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story...ryId=1093144717

Cheers Adam!

This is like we expected, we read that Rice was involved and voila, parlament agrees on a draft law, days after they recieved it!

The future is getting brighter!!