Thread: Iraq/Dinar News to April 19, 2007 10PM CST

Where is that silly rabbitt?

Nikki, I respect your opinion, however it is very easily seen as mad chaos and an overall loss when fed through a media tube that we as Americans have come to know.

The fact of the matter is the majority of Iraqi do appreciate our efforts and an overwhelming amount of good is happening. Of course people are going to perish and the negitive is going to dominate the media, but it is war and those things have happened. We as a international community has assisted and have been sucessful in helping Iraq establish, a government, schools, hospitals, jobs, and police stations.

There is so much good that goes unnoticed!!!!!

I don't know if this means anything about me. But I am always the driver! Hehaaaaaa

Baghdad oil agreement proves elusive
13 April 2007 (AME Info FZ LLC)


Iraq's government hopes that a draft hydrocarbons law it agreed on February 26 will be approved within the next two months depending on parliamentary approval of key details, in particular how the country's natural resources and revenues are going to be managed and distributed.

A proposed federal oil and gas commission will include both members of central and provincial levels of government but this implies a dilution of the existing oil ministry's role in decision making.
Independent consultants are also suggested for the new council but their possible influence on decisions is unclear. Revenue from oil sales is to be disbursed to communities according to population levels in the regions.

For this distribution to occur an accurate census will be needed to decide where, and in what numbers, where Iraq's population is located. A format for contracts and details of how revenues will be collected and mechanisms for their distribution also needs to be decided.

Big interest
Nevertheless, there remains big international interest in Iraq's oil given the highly favourable costs of extraction which are as low as $1a barrel. Observers feel that the country's vast reserves are the last great reservoir of cheap oil in the world.
Iraq's Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani is talking up the country's potential with claims that Iraq has 200 billion barrels of unconfirmed crude reserves in addition to confirmed reserves of 112 billion barrels. This would place Iraq ahead of Saudi Arabia in global petroleum importance.
Iraq's Oil Ministry has invited 15 companies to provide proposals by the end of May for exploring in the south of the country where almost all of Iraq's richest oilfields are located
The UAE's Crescent Petroleum has already conducted studies to develop Iraq's southern Ratawi oilfield with a potential output of 200,000 b/d and is also studying other areas between Basra and the Kuwait border.

Majors such as BP, Shell, Exxon, ConocoPhillips, Total, Russia's Lukoil and China's Sinopec are observing the situation cautiously. BP has been looking at the southern Rumaila field and Shell is looking at Kirkuk's fields.

Stake building
ConocoPhilips has hedged its bets by taking an 11 per cent equity stake in Russia's Lukoil which has also assigned to the US company a 17.5 per cent interest in Iraq's giant West Qurna field that Lukoil acquired from Saddam but was unable to exploit because of UN sanctions.

There are suggestions that agreements made by the old regime with oil companies from Indonesia China, India for exploration of smaller fields in the south central and broider areas with Kuwait may be upheld.

Saddam's regime offered lucrative production sharing contracts which were also offered initially in the first oil law draft by the present administration. Such arrangements now seem to have been dropped in favour of service and exploration contracts with more risk for companies.

With outside help Iraq's oil production could recover rapidly with a potential output eventually of 10 million b/d. However it will take a remarkable transformation in the security situation as well as advantageous contracts for the oil majors to return.

http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/16437

$115 million shares on the Bourse in 2006
13 April 2007 (Iraq Directory)


An Iraqi official in Amman said yesterday that the Iraq market for securities held 93 sessions during which 58 billion shares were circulated at a value of 146 billion Iraqi dinar (115 million dollars) in 2006.

Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Iraqi market for securities, Talib Al-Tabatabae, said on the sidelines of a conference on banking work in Iraq held in Amman that the market, which includes 100 company, had carried out 93 circulation sessions last year by two meetings a week; he also announced that the Iraqi Stock Exchange will shift, after four months, from the paper circulation to the electronic one, saying that not all companies will be included at once because it is a new practice and deserves caution for fear of falling into error.

According to Al-Tabatabae, the Iraqi market for securities was established after the war on Iraq in 2003 but the deteriorating security situation affected the market situation and the circulation activity. The conference which was concluded last Thursday in Amman, and was organized by the Iraqi government in collaboration with the American Agency for International Development, discussed the banking work in Iraq and the challenges of the twenty-first century. The Conference was also attended by Iraqis and American government, as well as banks’ officials in Iraq and a number of representatives of Arab countries, the IMF and the World Bank.

http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/16436

Shell awaiting visibility on the Iraqi oil law
13 April 2007 (Iraq Directory)


Chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell Company said on Thursday that the oil company will invest in Iraq only if they are fully confident of the legal framework that governs the oil and gas projects.
Iraqi government had adopted last February a draft law on Iraq's oil, which would facilitate investment to foreign companies and it is important for the organization of dividing the huge oil wealth among the sects and ethnic groups.
However, Jeron van der Veir, Head Shell said that his company is still studying the law and it needs to make sure that it would not be facing a different legal framework before it ventures with its funds.
He told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Paris, "You must not only think in the legal system existing now, but you must be confident that it will continue in order to invest there".
He also prefers to negotiate with Baghdad and not with local governments on oil contracts, saying that it would be "perfectly logical" to conduct negotiations with the central government.
He went on to say that the security situation in Iraq must be stabilized well before the flow of investments.

http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/16435

Iraqi oil exports flowing normally
13 April 2007 (Iraq Directory)


Iraqi Oil Ministry said on Thursday that oil exports are flowing normally, denying the rumors about supply disruption from southern Iraq as a result of a grenade attack.
A spokesman for the ministry said, "That is not true. All pipelines are functioning well and exports are fine".
He added that the explosion of a bomb planted on the side of the road on Wednesday threw a fragment on a pipeline carrying oil from the southern field of Al-Rumaila to the storage tanks at Zubayr. He said "the flow of oil was not affected."

http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/16434

Originally Posted by mountaingirl

can you explain as if you were talking to a 5 year old. Thanks

A southpaw is a lefty so I think he's saying the decimal point will move to the left... Which would be a good thing, right?

Originally Posted by s_cotton33

A southpaw is a lefty so I think he's saying the decimal point will move to the left... Which would be a good thing, right?

Yes, that would be a very good thing!

Great Job! I was thinking about dancing to the east or dancing to the west....the..what the southpaw .....is he hopping on all fours?

So a new word for me: south paw " slang A left handed person, especially a left handed baseball pitcher. From the practice in baseball of arranging the diamond with the batter facing east to avoid the afternoon sun. A left-handed pitcher facing west would therefore have his pitching arm towards the south of the diamond."