Thread: Archive Latest News - Think Tank - 01/01/08 - 14/04/08

Al-Maliki from London: 2007 was a Critical Year, Yet Things are Going Better

2007 was a hard year to the Iraqis, but signals are obvious that situations are going better. Nuri al-Maliki, Iraqi PM stated to Aliraqia Satellite Channel from London.

Iraqi Government is determined that 2008 must be a year of Reconstruction, Economy situations improvement and fighting Corruption. Al-Maliki added
Iraqi PM also said that his health is excellent following a medical checkup last week in London.

PUKmedia :: English - Al-Maliki from London: 2007 was a Critical Year, Yet Things are Going Better

Kirkuk Fraternity List Issues Statement about Extension of Article 140’s Implementation

Kirkuk Fraternity List in Kirkuk Provisional Council (KPC) issued a statement about extending the implementation of article 140 of the Iraqi permanent constitution concerning normalization of Kirkuk and the disputed areas .

The following is the full text of the statement:

According to a decision by the Kirkuk Provisional Council in 20/11/2007 a meeting was scheduled to be held following passing the deadline of implementation of article 140 to determine the stance of the council towards the Iraqi Federal Government and all the related sides which are responsible for non-implementation.

Due to objective reasons and taking into consideration the political developments related to this issue including the return of Iraqi Republican Gathering List to the Kirkuk Provisional Council, the statement by UNAMI regarding the triple agreement among (Kurdistan Region Presidency, Iraqi Federal Government, and the Iraqi Presidency) about extending the implementation of article 140,the visit of US Secretary of State to the Kirkuk Provisional Council as well as the stances of Kurdistan Political Leadership and the Kurdistan Region Parliament , the special meeting could not been held in its scheduled time .Therefore , the Kirkuk Provisional Council have been asked to postpone the special meeting to 3/1/2008 so that necessary stance and decisions to be made during that meeting concerning this issue and Republican Gathering List to be informed to attend the meeting.

PUKmedia :: English - Kirkuk Fraternity List Issues Statement about Extension of Article 140’s Implementation

Three Power Projects Completed, Turned Over In Basrah Province

U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS, GULF REGION DIVISION
Army engineers continued their mission of helping the Government of Iraq jump start its electrical infrastructure by completing three essential power projects in the Gulf Region South district.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently turned the three 132kV electrical substations over to Iraqi authorities in the Basrah Province, according to Tom Eidson, head of engineering and construction at GRS.

The Iraqi people currently are enjoying more electricity than at any time in the past, Eidson said. As more and more electrical projects come to completion, he said, the Iraqi people have more electrical power available for greater lengths of time and, thus, enjoy a higher standard of living.

“These 132kV substation facilities (Al-Toba, Al-Hammar and Al-Gurnah) help correct distribution problems in the system by relieving overload on transformers and switchgears,” said Engineer Firas, the project engineer with the Basrah Area Office.

Eidson said the power is not only being made available for personal use, but also for commercial and industrial use, which will strengthen and broaden the economic foundation of Iraq.

“Al-Toba 132kV substation project will provide the electricity to support the Toba tank oil transfer and storage facility, which is the backbone of the oil conveyance system for the Rumayla oil field,” Eidson said. “The economy of Iraq is based largely on revenues from the marketing of its oil products. This facility is critical to getting Iraq oil to the world oil market.”
The rehabilitation project at Al-Hammar 132kV substation is a critical element of the Al-Hammar and Hammar-Mishrif gas/oil separation facilities and will help provide the Basrah International Airport and the Sweet Water Facility with a more reliable and secure transmission network, Firas said.

Al-Gurnah 132kV substation project will improve reliability and safety standards for the electrical distribution network, reduce electrical outages, and supply electricity to a population of approximately 80,000 people, he added.

“Work consisted at Al-Toba and Al-Hammar substations of general maintenance, replacement of the damaged transformers and switch gears, and cosmetic improvements,” Firas said. “While the equipment used in the Al-Gurnah project includes two, 63 megavolt transformers, a building control room, a high voltage switch gear room, a protection fence and a guard house.

“All the substations were manual and using the 1983 technology. but now they are computerized and using the 2005 technology,” the engineer added.

PUKmedia :: English - Three Power Projects Completed, Turned Over In Basrah Province

Al-Mada: Jalal Talabani is Most Active President in Iraq

According to a research conducted by al-Mada Publishing House for Mass Media Culture and Art, the current Iraqi President, his Excellency Jalal Talabani, is the most active president since the formation of the Iraqi state.

Referring to the history of the successive Iraqi presidents, the research reported that President Jalal Talabani is the only one who has been participating in several academic sessions held in the ********* universities, and touring around many eastern and western countries to spread the mission of forming new Iraq.

Brining the differences among the Iraqi political parties together is attributed to Talabani’s wise policies which are for the interests of all the components of the Iraqi community, as the research concluded.

PUKmedia :: English - Al-Mada: Jalal Talabani is Most Active President in Iraq

President Talabani visits Kirkuk

The Iraqi President his Excellency Mr. Jalal Talabani visited Kirkuk today accompanied by Kurdistan region Vice President ,Mr. Kosrat Rasul Ali ,Speaker of Kurdistan National Assembly ,Mr. Adnan Mufti.

They were received by Kirkuk Governor ,Abdul Rahman Mustafa ,Head of Kirkuk Provincial Council , Rizgar Ali and a number of the Kirkuk Provincial Council members and governmental officials .

President Talabani held a meeting with the Kirkuk Governor, Head of Kirkuk Provincial Council and a number of governmental officials in the city in order to see conditions there closely.

On the other hand, Mr. Jalal Talabani, Secretary General of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) met the officials of PUK Organizational Center in Kirkuk where the meeting discussed the activities and works of PUK in the area.

Details will be posted soon.

PUKmedia :: English - President Talabani visits Kirkuk

Iraq increases Oil Exports in 2007, expects higher Production in 2008

Iraq's oil exports shot up in the last quarter of 2007 and the ministry in charge of production forecast Wednesday that it will reach three million barrels per day by the end of the year.

Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said Iraq's average production was 2.4 million barrels per day in November, nearly a half million more than the post-2003 average. Exports stood at around 1.9 million barrels per day, sold at an average price of US$83.87 per barrel.

Jihad added that the exports, about 1.6 million barrels a day from Basra in the south and more than 300,000 daily barrels from Kirkuk in the north had grossed a total of US$4.94 billion in November, which made up more than 90 per cent of Iraq's revenues.

"The ministry's ambition is to increase the production to more than three million bpd by the end of 2008 and to pass the national oil law which will enable us to draw foreign investment to our oil resources," Jihad told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

He added that resuming oil shipments through a pipeline from Iraq's Kirkuk oilfields into the Turkish Ceyhan export terminal, which was often halted in past years due to sabotage, had given Iraq more flexibility to increase production.

But the year has had more downs than ups.

Iraq's political factions last February drafted the first version of a bill to regulate the country's oil industry in an effort to share its revenues among Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish communities.

But the effort bogged down in parliament, mostly over delicate power sharing issues involving the central government in Iraq. The Kurds, for example, want a greater say in managing oilfields in their self-ruled area of the north.

Sunni Arabs fear that they will be left out of oil profits as the provinces where they are dominant have few proven reserves. Most of Iraq's oil reserves are in the Kurdish north and the largely Shiite south.

U.S. officials view the oil law as a catalyst for investment and a means of clamping down on sectarian violence.

In August, Iraq's semiautonomous regional government of Kurdistan passed its own oil law and signed more than a dozen production-sharing contracts with international oil companies. The Oil Ministry has said it considers these deals to be illegal and has threatened to blacklist the foreign companies that are involved.

The oil ministry Wednesday also asked international oil companies to submit by Jan. 31 all necessary registration documents to allow them to bid for participation in the development of Iraq's oil fields.

"The Oil Ministry has invited all international petroleum companies willing to work in Iraq to register by submitting required documentation," Jihad said in a statement.

The ministry said only registered and qualified companies would be allowed to bid for oil field development projects.

"Registration of companies in the Republic of Iraq is a necessary step to enable them to take part in any round of production licenses that the ministry is intending to issue," he said.

Iraqi oil officials said recently they hoped to issue tenders to develop the country's vast oilfields at the beginning of 2008. They said the oil ministry was preparing contract models for the first group of oilfields.

PUKmedia :: English - Iraq increases Oil Exports in 2007, expects higher Production in 2008

Forum in Baghdad on administrative corruption

The first forum on combating the administrative corruption will be held on Thursday in al-Rasheed hotel in Baghdad, Deputy Prime Minister Burham Saleh's media office said on Wednesday.

"The meeting will discuss means to combat the administrative corruption during the current year in coordination with the parties concerned to reduce this phenomena," the office said a statement received by the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

"Deputy Prime Minister Burham Saleh, a number of ministers, MPs, diplomats and businessmen will attend the forum," the statement added.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had announced during the Basra reconstruction conference last month that 2008 will be the year of reconstruction, services and fight against administrative corruption.

A U.S. report, released last September, strongly criticized ways to combat corruption in the Iraqi institutions.

Aswat Aliraq

Iraq invites international oil companies to expand oil industry


Oil Ministry on Wednesday invited international oil companies willing to work in Iraq to submit their papers, provided that they were officially registered in the country’s concerned offices, a ministry spokesman said.

“Contracts and licensing directory in Oil Ministry on Wednesday called on all qualified and well-known international companies to submit their applications to work in Iraq,” Assem Jihad, from the Oil Ministry, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

Jihad considered “the registry of companies in Iraq as a standard condition.”

He added “Companies have to fill in application forms and submit the documents before the end of January 2008.”

“A committee will be established to review all applications, and the names of winning companies will be announced in a press conference later,” the spokesman pointed out.

Jihad noted the invitation of companies coincided with a new Iraqi trend to implement a high number of oil projects in Oil Ministry’s long-term plan to improve the oil industry.

Aswat Aliraq

Central bank's auction canceled because of inventory

A source from the Iraqi Central Bank said it canceled its Wednesday session to complete its annual inventory.

"Wednesday's session has been called off because the bank will draw up its annual inventory," an informed source from the bank's relations department told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

The bank is expected to resume its daily session this Thursday, the source indicated.

Demand for the dollar significantly increased during the bank's latest session on Monday, registering at $119.535 million compared to $55.960 million on Sunday.

In its daily statement on Monday, the bank said it had covered all bids, including $22.635 million in cash and $96.900 in foreign transfers, at an exchange rate of 1,215 dinars per dollar, one tick lower than the previous session.

The Iraqi Central Bank runs a daily auction from Sunday to Thursday.

Aswat Aliraq

U.S. troops storm Health Ministry again

U.S. troops barged into the Health Ministry building early this week, seizing several guards, destroying doors and tinkering with official documents.

U.S. officials in Baghdad have declined comment on the reasons that spurred them to storm the building in the heart of Baghdad. They also have given no explanation for their d****tion of the guards.

A health ministry source, refusing to be named, said: “U.S. forces stormed the building of the Health Ministry … and captured several guards assigned to protect it, destroyed several doors and tinkered with its contents.”

The source said the troops have refused to issue a statement with regard to the ‘attack’ or the reasons that led them to do so.

It is the second raid by U.S. troops on the Health Ministry building.

Early in 2007, the troops made an unannounced assault on the building and detained a Deputy Minister Hakem al-Zamili.

Zamili, a member of the political wing of the movement led by Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, is still languishing in a U.S. jail allegedly for fomenting sectarian violence.

Azzaman in English