Thread: Archive Latest News - Think Tank - 03/11/07 - 31/12/07

OPEC ends summit, affirming commitment to three themes of the conferencePower & Materials
11/18/2007 4:58:00 PM

-CUSTODIAN OF TWO HOLY MOSQUES CHAIRS OPEC CLOSED-DOOR SESSION.

RIYADH, Nov 18 (KUNA) -- Leaders of OPEC member states ended two days of talks here on Sunday affirming commitment to provide sufficient oil supply to consumer countries, invest more in less developed countries and respect of international accords on environment.
Read by OPEC Secretary General Abdullah Salem al Badri and broadcast life to reporters here, the final statement which was reached after the two-day session, reflected the group's commitment to the three themes of the conference, Providing Petroleum, Promoting prosperity and Protecting the Planet.
OPEC members are urged to direct investments of oil in its countries, enhance energy investments for world peace and reduce the burden of less developing nations.

The final statement mirrored the member states' believe that present oil prices were fair, and urged the governments of the oil consuming countries to adopt a typical transparent and commercial policy, accoridng to Badri.
The member states assigned a committee to follow up the OPEC fund for energy researches which was launched by the Saudi monarch, said the secretary general.
OPEC members said energy was meant for sustainable development and to close the gap between the rich and poor worlds, underlining significance that investments take into consideration the conditions of the less developed nations.
The organization called on less developed nations to obtain accredited technology that is environmentally safe, pledging to present multi-purpose assistance to under-developing nations to achieve sustainable development

The final statement also underlined that reducing burdens of less developing nations was an essential necessity, noting that consumption of energy resources imposed great challenges on the organization.
Badri said climate change was another challenge for OPEC and the international society in general, stressing significance of the role of governments and individuals alike to confront climate change.
OPEC also asserts commitment to the Kyoto accord in the environment field, Badri said, acknowledging the firm relations between energy productions and preserving the environment.
He said OPEC was committed to cooperation with centers in the industrial and environment research, noting that petroleum played a significant role in preserving the environment and sustainable development. (end) kt.tg KUNA 181746 Nov 07NNNN

http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesP...94&Language=en

Budget of Kurdistan Region for the Year of 2008 increased by the Iraqi Federal Government

PUKmedia 20:09:02 2007-11-18
Today Xandan Press & Publishing House organized a press conference for K RG Ministry of Finance and Economy Undersecretary, Dilshad Othman , at the Sulaimani Palace Hotel in which he shed light on the 2008 budget of Kurdistan region.

“The Iraqi federal government without KRG’s awareness reduced the budget of Kurdistan region for the year of 2008 by the % 35 compared with the last years budget, but due to efforts by Dr. Barham Ahmed Salih, Iraqi Deputy PM, and head of the Iraqi Finance Committee, along with the meeting of the Kurdish side with the Iraqi Finance Minister, Bayan Jabir al- Zubaidi they were able to increase the budget of Kurdistan region to 6 trillions and 4993 milliards ID i.e. More than a half trillion, compared with the last years budget.” Dilshad Othman said.

“The Iraqi budget for 2008 is 50 trillions and 700 milliards ID, in ****e of budgets of the Iraqi Defense Ministry, Parliament, Government, and Food and health sectors.” He added.

PUKmedia :: English - Budget of Kurdistan Region for the Year of 2008 increased by the Iraqi Federal Government

$2 Million allocated to make Olive Yards in Kurdistan Region

Today a committee from the KRG Ministry of Agriculture held a meeting in the presence of some farmers from Chamchamal sub district aiming at cultivating some olive gardens in the area under the instructions and recommendations of the Ministry.

According to these recommendations, the farmers should be committed to the Ministry’s conditions, and in case of missing the equipments in five years period, which are going to be distributed by the Ministry among farmers for that purpose, the farmer will be fined with 5 million ID.

According to an exclusive statement to PUKmedia, Samir Ismail, Director of Gardening said “400 olive yards are going to be created, 39 of them will be located in Chamchamal area”.

“The Ministry provides each farmer with 350 olive transplants, irrigation equipments, 350 fencing plants, and 300 meters of cordon wire, de****e constant recommendations given to the farmers during the process” he added.

It is worth mentioning that $2 million are allocated to the project.

PUKmedia :: English - $2 Million allocated to make Olive Yards in Kurdistan Region

OPEC Promises to Keep Providing 'Sufficient' Oil to World Markets

Leaders of OPEC countries have ended their summit in Saudi Arabia with a promise to continue providing what they call "sufficient" oil supplies to the world market.

In their closing statement Sunday, OPEC leaders also called for greater financial co-operation among the oil cartel's members.

Several OPEC members also promised to help fight global warming by funding research into climate change. Saudi Arabia pledged 300-million dollars to the effort, while Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates each offered 150-million dollars.

OPEC did not announce any changes to the practice of pricing oil in dollars.

OPEC members Iran and Venezuela have been pushing the cartel to sell oil in currencies other than the dollar, such as the euro. The weakening of the U.S. currency this year has reduced the value of OPEC members' oil exports.

Oil-consuming nations have urged OPEC to increase production to help reduce oil prices, which have soared to almost 100 dollars a barrel in recent weeks.

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said at the summit that he backs Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's call for OPEC to become more political. Saudi King Abdullah rejected the idea Saturday, saying OPEC should not make oil a source of conflict.

Mr. Correa also proposed an environmental tax on richer, oil-consuming nations to pay for the development of alternative fuels.

The two-day OPEC gathering in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, was only the third summit the bloc has held since its founding in 1960.

PUKmedia :: English - OPEC Promises to Keep Providing 'Sufficient' Oil to World Markets

OPEC agrees to dollar talks after forex basket proposalReuters Sunday November 18 2007

(Updates with quotes, background)
By Souhail Karam
RIYADH, Nov 18 (Reuters) - OPEC states agreed their finance ministers would meet before Dec. 5 to discuss the sliding dollar's impact on their economies after Iran and Venezuela recommended pricing oil against a currency basket.
The ministers would meet before the next gathering of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' energy ministers in the United Arab Emirates capital, Abu Dhabi, Iraqi Finance Minister Bayan Jabor told Reuters on Sunday.
OPEC Secretary General Abdullah el-Badri confirmed the talks would take place before the Abu Dhabi meeting on Dec. 5.
OPEC excluded any reference to the tumbling dollar in its communique from a Riyadh summit, which ended on Sunday, voting down a proposal by Venezuela and Iran to highlight concerns about the currency's impact on oil producers' economies.
Jabor said the two countries also proposed OPEC stop pricing oil in the dollar, which tumbled to record lows on global markets this month.
"There was a proposal from Iran and Venezuela to have a basket of currencies for the pricing of OPEC oil. But a consensus could not be reached," he said.
"Because the final communique was already drafted, there was an agreement that OPEC finance ministers hold a meeting before the oil meeting in the UAE in December to discuss economic issues including the dollar's exchange rate," Jabor said.
Pricing oil against a currency basket was "not specifically on the agenda" of the finance minister's meeting, he said.
Ecuador, which rejoined the cartel at the Riyadh summit after 15 years, backed Venezuela's and Iran's push to have their concerns about the dollar included in the summit communique, Jabor said.
"Other member states discreetly share the same concern," he said declining to elaborate or say what Iraq's position was.
The dollar's drop on global market, including to a record low against the euro, helped fuel oil's rally to a record $98.62 last week. It has also eroded the purchasing power of OPEC members.
OPEC's second-biggest producer Iran has shifted much of the payment received for its oil into other currencies.
Venezuela is more worried about the impact on its export revenues by a decline in the dollar than any economic slowdown in the United States, its biggest crude customer.
Angola's finance minister said earlier that OPEC's finance, foreign and oil ministers would hold more talks on the dollar's weakness after the Abu Dhabi gathering.
"The meetings will analyze a series of issues that different leaders have raised during the discussions in Riyadh," Jose Pedro de Morais told Reuters. "The weakening dollar being one of them.
"The (Riyadh) conference did not discuss changing the pricing of oil sales. The future meetings will not include shifting to a new pricing mechanism in their agenda." (Editing by Maureen Bavdek

$200 Oil warning at Summit

The UAE said yesterday it remained committed to supplying oil to the international market and continue to invest more in oil to raise production capacity.

The statement was made by President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan after his arrival in Riyadh yesterday, heading a UAE delegation to the third meeting of heads of member states of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), which began on Saturday.

"We believe in the need to invest more to boost production, but we also believe in the need to ensure security of demand against the security of supply," Shaikh Khalifa said.

The statement came ahead of the rare Opec summit that began with Venez-uelan President Hugo Chavez issuing a chilling warning about oil prices in a speech that also urged the group to be actively involved in foreign policy.

Chavez said in his speech that crude prices could leapfrog to $200 a barrel from their current record level of near $100 a barrel if global tensions escalated. "If the United States was mad enough to attack Iran or aggress Venezuela again the price of a barrel of oil could reach $150 or even $200," Chavez was quoted as saying by Reuters. He urged Opec leaders to club together for geopolitical reasons.

UAE reaffirms supplies

Chavez’s remarks were tempered by Saudi King Abdullah, who said that "oil is an energy for construction and must not become an instrument for conflict".

King Abdullah also announced that Saudi Arabia would invest $300 million to develop technology to tackle climate change.

The two-day summit in Riyadh is intended to map out the strategic direction of Opec, a point underscored in Shaikh Khalifa’s statement.

"Since its establishment 47 years ago, Opec has proved its ability to deal positively and effectively with various developments witnessed by oil markets and the global economy," the President said, noting that the group — which produces about 40 per cent of world oil — managed to achieve a balance in oil markets without compromising on supplies.

Gulfnews: $200 oil warning at summit

Tension over dollar-weakness boils over at OPEC summit - Summary

Tension over the weakness of the US dollar and rising oil prices boiled over Saturday at the opening session of the third-ever OPEC summit, with strident discussion over an Iranian demand that the final summit statement mention the weakness of the US dollar. The heads of state of the 13-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries - meeting in Riyadh for only the third time in OPEC's 47-year history - had on their formal agenda the effect of rising oil prices on poorer nations, climate change and fighting global warming.

But an inadvertently open microphone allowed reporters to eavesdrop before the official opening as oil ministers disagreed over the future role of the falling dollar in determining oil prices.

King Abdullah Abdel-Aziz opened the summit with a pledge that Saudi Arabia would allocate a grant of 300 million dollars "as a seed" for research on climate change, environment and energy resources.

Ironically, the OPEC meeting coincided with Saturday's presentation in Valencia, Spain, by the UN panel on climate change of a report that summarized warnings about the catastrophe that awaits the world if carbon dioxide emissions from burning oil and coal continue unabated.

"I hope that (oil) producing and consuming countries will engage in a similar programme, an endeavour that guarantees the wellbeing of the environment," said the Saudi monarch in his opening speech.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, with quick support from Venezuela, had requested that Iran's "concerns over the weak performance of the US dollar" be mentioned in the summit's concluding statement.

But Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal warned that it could lead to a "collapse" in the US currency. The microphone was cut off after organizers realized the breach.

Already on Friday, Abdallah Salam al-Badri, OPEC's secretary general, had rejected the Iranian request, but discussion ensued on Saturday.

Abdullah defended the soaring prices hovering around the 100 dollar-a-barrel mark, saying inflation had lessened the value of the dollar over the years.

"The real current price of oil - if we bear in mind the inflation rate - has not even reached its equivalent in the 1980s," said the king.

OPEC has showed unwillingness to exercise control over the climbing prices by increasing output - an issue that won't be tackled until another OPEC session on December 5.

In a fiery speech that charged the United States with aggression against OPEC members, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said 100 dollars was a fair price and urged the organization to play a more active role to combat poverty and help poorer countries.

"I call on OPEC to take the lead in calling for a new economic structure and combating poverty," Chavez said.

His combative rhetoric, which has alienated not only his own country's business and oil industry but also many in the international community, may have been music to the ears of his Iranian ally, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,who was present at the summit.

But certainly it was not so to his Saudi hosts who profess prudence in dealing with concerns of consumer countries over oil price and output. Saudi Arabia is an avowed enemy of so******t revolutionary regimes and a champion of free market economy and conservatism.

Abdullah defended OPEC's demonstrated interest in the poor by referring to the work that the OPEC Fund for International Development has done. The fund has invested 30 billion Saudi Riyals (8 billion dollars) in developing countries.

"Facts prove that OPEC always behaves against a backdrop of fairness and wisdom," Abdullah said.

Suleiman al-Harbash, who heads the development fund, had earlier in the day faced a challenge by reporters who questioned whether the organization monopolizes oil wealth or uses the needs of other countries "to get rich."

Al-Harbash responded that people have "a distorted picture" of OPEC.

"OPEC invests in developing and poor countries across the world," he said. "The oil-producing countries are happy to extract natural wealth from the depths of the earth in order to create wealth above the land, build civilizations and (cause) constant development."

OPEC, made up of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Ecuador, Venezuela, Angola, Libya, Nigeria, Algeria and Indonesia, produces 40 per cent of the world's oil and owns three-quarters of the world's oil reserves.

Ecuador formally rejoined OPEC this weekend after leaving the organization in 1992 because it viewed limits on oil production as to constraining.

Tension over dollar-weakness boils over at OPEC summit - Summary : Middle East World

Iraqi Kurds flex muscles over Black Gold Reserves

De****e a veto from Baghdad, Iraqi Kurds have signed contracts with foreign firms to exploit their huge oil reserves which they vow will benefit the whole country.

Strengthened by the autonomy enshrined in the Iraqi constitution, the Iraqi Kurdish authority launched a regional oil policy in August, signing deals with overseas companies, to first achieve self-sufficiency and later exportation.

The authority has signed 20 contracts during the last three months and shows no sign of changing course, de****e threats from the federal government to blacklist companies trading with the Kurdish region.

"Iraq has more than 12 percent of the world's crude oil reserves, of which at least five percent is in our region," said Kiwan Siwaily, advisor to Kurdish oil minister Ashti Hawrami.

"The old Iraqi regimes since the 1920s didn't allow us to develop these resources. No student was allowed to study in the oil and gas sector," added Siwaily, just recently back from Germany with a degree in this field.

In the 1970s, gigantic oil fields were discovered in Iraqi Kurdish region but failed to be fully explored. They were never exploited during the reign of Saddam, hostile to the Kurds who resisted his authority.

Since the end of his regime in April 2003, the reserves attracted the attention of international oil sector representatives who travelled to the main city Arbil.

"To export, we have to talk to the central government. But for our domestic use, we don't have to ask anyone. It belongs to us. It's our country," said Siwaily.

"We're now producing 20,000 barrels a day. We need 100,000 for our domestic use alone. It's our oil, it's our right."

The federal parliament has been attempting to hammer out a deal regarding national oil policy and to negotiate the delicate issue of sharing resources between the regions.

The Shiite majority in the south and Kurdish majority in the north have plentiful oil reserves.

But the Sunnis in central Iraq have little oil and insist policy is centralised through Baghdad, an approach not shared by the Kurdish regional authorities but backed by Washington.

US authorities want the oil revenues to be shared equally among the 18 provinces of Iraq, especially the Sunnis in a bid to wipe out the Sunni-led insurgency against its troops.

Commenting on the oil contracts signed in Arbil on November 7, Hawrami said: "In Kurdistan, we are setting the example: this is only the first post-Saddam framework for oil investment in Iraq that follows the democratic, federal, and free-market principles mandated by the Iraqi constitution."

The Kurdish authorities are attempting to reassure Baghdad and the other communities that they are happy with rules that restrict them to retaining only the 17 percent of export earnings.

At the federal level, this figure of 17 percent is also the portion of the national budget granted to the Kurdish region.

"We know that if we want to export anything, we'll have to share: 17 percent for us only," said Siwaily. "We have no problem with that."

"They are still discussing this oil law at the federal level. It could take them another two or three years. We're not going to wait. We have lost enough time already.

"Here, we have enough oil and gas for all the Middle East. It's our oil, our country. You'll see, we don't need more than two or three years to develop everything and cover our domestic needs."

Among the contracts recently signed, is one for a gas collection and a refinery to supply the electricity stations, which experts says make the problem of regional power cuts a distant memory.

Iraqi Kurds flex muscles over black gold reserves - Yahoo!Xtra News

Update

OPEC agrees dollar talks after Forex Basket proposal

OPEC states agreed their finance ministers would meet before December 5 to discuss the sliding dollar's impact on their economies after Iran and Venezuela recommended pricing oil against a currency basket.

The ministers would meet before the next gathering of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' energy ministers in the United Arab Emirates capital, Abu Dhabi, Iraqi Finance Minister Bayan Jabor told Reuters on Sunday.

OPEC Secretary General Abdullah el-Badri confirmed the talks would take place before the Abu Dhabi meeting on December 5.

OPEC excluded any reference to the tumbling dollar in its communique from a Riyadh summit which ended on Sunday, voting down a proposal by Venezuela and Iran to highlight concerns about the currency's impact on oil producers' economies.

Jabor said the two countries also proposed OPEC stop pricing oil in the dollar, which tumbled to record lows on global markets this month.

"There was a proposal from Iran and Venezuela to have a basket of currencies for the pricing of OPEC oil. But a consensus could not be reached," he said.

"Because the final communique was already drafted, there was an agreement that OPEC finance ministers hold a meeting before the oil meeting in the UAE in December to discuss economic issues including the dollar's exchange rate," Jabor said.

Pricing oil against a currency basket was "not specifically on the agenda" of the finance minister's meeting, he said.

Ecuador, which rejoined the cartel at the Riyadh summit after 15 years, backed Venezuela's and Iran's push to have their concerns about the dollar included in the summit communique, Jabor said.

"Other member states discreetly share the same concern," he said declining to elaborate or say what Iraq's position was.

The dollar's drop on global market, including to a record low against the euro, helped fuel oil's rally to a record $98.62 last week. It has also eroded the purchasing power of OPEC members.

OPEC's second-biggest producer Iran has shifted much of the payment received for its oil into other currencies.

Venezuela is more worried about the impact on its export revenues by a decline in the dollar than any economic slowdown in the United States, its biggest crude customer.

Angola's finance minister said earlier that OPEC's finance, foreign and oil ministers would hold more talks on the dollar's weakness after the Abu Dhabi gathering.

"The meetings will analyze a series of issues that different leaders have raised during the discussions in Riyadh," Jose Pedro de Morais told Reuters. "The weakening dollar being one of them.

"The (Riyadh) conference did not discuss changing the pricing of oil sales. The future meetings will not include shifting to a new pricing mechanism in their agenda."

OPEC agrees dollar talks after forex basket proposal | Reuters

OPENING SHOT
The Dangers of Selling Short
The odds are stacked against you. The economy grows, and so do companies that take part in it.

By James K. Glassman
From Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, December 2007

The hardest thing to do in stock investing is to pick a loser. Think of how the odds are stacked against you. First, over the past 80 years, U.S. stocks have produced an average yearly return of a little more than 10%. Stocks make money (again, on average) in about three out of every four years. The period since 1994 is typical. De****e the tech-bubble bust, the 9/11 attacks, the 2001 recession, the war in Iraq and the subprime meltdown, Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, a good proxy for the U.S. market, rose in ten years and fell in three. The reason is simple: The economy grows an average of 5% to 6% annually, including inflation, and so do companies that take part in it.

Barely breathing
Second, and more important, finding a stock that is on the verge of a decline is extremely difficult. Because markets are awfully efficient, bad news about a company and its prospects is, in nearly all cases, already built into the price of the stock. For example, Ford Motor lost $5.63 per share for the 12 months ending June 30. That's for a stock that trades at about $8 per share. Yet Ford's price has risen over the past 12 months. Why? Ford may be in trouble, but its prospects seem to be improving.

An even better example, although farther afield, is the Baghdad stock market. Although the situation there may appear miserable on a here-and-now, absolute scale, investors see things improving on a future-focused, relative scale. James Grant wrote in his newsletter, Grant's Interest Rate Observer, in September, "The only thing stronger than the Iraqi currency is the Baghdad stock market." He added: "In January, just 41 listed Iraqi companies attracted any meaningful trading activity." But by the end of July, the figure had jumped to 58, and 42 of them were at all-time highs. In that month alone, the Baghdad market jumped 58% on a volume of 73 billion shares.{snipe..}