Thread: Iraq/Dinar News. 09/05 to 01/14/07

Originally Posted by CharmedPiper

Iraq poses a tender for the sale of Kirkuk crude soon

(Voice of Iraq) - 06-01-2007
This issue was sent to a friend

A source from the Iraqi oil ministry is likely to put Iraq later on Friday tender for the sale of Kirkuk oil will be the first since last September after stockpiles in Turkey exceeded four million barrels.

The source said, "We are in the process of bidding today. , Will be charging the oil before the end of the month. "

A source navigation to the Turkish port of Ceyhan pipeline, which runs from Kirkuk, Iraq did not witness any pumping quantities of oil last night.

The shipping industry source said on Thursday that stocks of Kirkuk crude at Ceyhan, Turkey rose to 4.4 million barrels after the resumption of pumping through the pipeline from Iraq in January before the first stop on the third of January.

Exports of Kirkuk crude intermittently disrupted as subversive attacks and the problems of a technical line most of the time since the invasion of Iraq that was led by the United States in March 2003.

The Federation of the Egyptian Radio and Television

Can You Post the Link with these post. I would like to see them on the site some of them come from. Thanks Ahead.

I thought it was suppose to be dollars.


Iraqi News
Thursday, January 04, 2007 Iraqi budget for 2007 allocated at 41b dinars
(MENAFN) In a press conference held in Iraq recently, the first deputy chairman of the Iraqi parliament stated that the general budget for 2007 is 41 billion dollars, and includes allocations for security affairs of 7.5 billion dollars. The official said that tthe budget had been referred to the Economic and Investment Committee in the Parliament for deliberation, indicating that the budget will offer more than 136 job opportunities for Iraqis. Meanwhile, tthe Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, said that the budget is encouraging and large compared to the past budgets. It is even more than the current year budget by 11 billion dollars, he added. It is worth mentioning that investment expenditure in this budget amounted to ten billion dollars and the expenditures allocated for security are 7.5 billion, in addition to doubling the expenditure of education to reach 6.2 billion dollars, while the health sector allocations are 1.8 billion dollars, at a rise of 71%.
Trade Bank of Iraq - Your Trade and Investment Partner in Iraq

International
Iraq's Wildcats
Christopher Helman 01.08.07

With violence raging, some American investors are drilling for oil in the Kurdish-controlled north. Are they nuts?

Very quietly in September, under the watchful eye of the Kurdish Oil Protection Force, a crew funded by Prime Natural Resources of Houston started drilling for crude in northern Iraq. The idea was to reach a target depth of 9,500 feet in a Bina Bawi field around New Year's and uncork what seismic studies indicate could be 500 million barrels of oil. Success would make Prime and its partners the first Americans to find new oil in post-Saddam Iraq.

Long before ExxonMobil (nyse: XOM - news - people ), BP (nyse: BP - news - people ) and Chevron (nyse: CVX - news - people ) pile on, Prime is making an audacious move at a very delicate time. The dispute over hydrocarbons is very much at the heart of the civil war raging in Iraq: Sunnis, who ruled under Saddam, want their share of oil riches, which mostly lie in the Kurdish-controlled north and the Shiite south. The factions seem close to a federal law over how to distribute petro revenues--which might tamp down the violence--but are hung up on who would have final say, the feds or the regional government. Until that's settled, Uncle Sam doesn't want any oil company, American or otherwise, cutting deals with any group. The State Department said as much to Prentis B. Tomlinson, chief executive of Calibre Energy, one of Prime's partners, when it summoned him for a scolding in the fall. "My response was, 'I wish you had called me before we had made the investment,'" winks Tomlinson, 64. "Still, there's no law that precludes us from being there."

But there is the lure of relatively quick and hefty profits. Early investors in Calibre, an o-t-c bulletin board stock with minimal operations (it lost $1.9 million on revenue of $21,000 in 2005), stand to pocket $100 million or so if a new stock offering becomes effective early this year. And there are other western investors in Iraqi Kurdistan. Adjacent to the ridge formation that marks Bina Bawi is a field called Taq Taq, where a Swiss-Canadian outfit, Addax Petroleum, says it found 2 billion barrels in September. Last April Norwegian explorer DNO hit pay dirt--330 million barrels in the Tawke field. Other prospectors include Canada's Heritage Oil and Western Oil Sands.

Where is Big Oil? "The supermajors won't go in yet; they can't afford the headlines. What workers would they send there, and who would be willing to break the news to their family when they got killed?" asks Peter Newman, head of the oil and gas practice of Deloitte & Touche. "Plus, these projects are too small for the big guys."

Since 2003 there have been 375-plus attacks on Iraq oil assets: pipelines blown up, engineers shot, fuel trucks set on fire. Iraq's oil output is down from a prewar 2.5 million barrels per day to 1.9 million. Considering that Iraq's estimated reserves of 150 billion barrels are second only to Saudi Arabia's, oil economists think Iraq could easily produce 5 million barrels a day for many years. While the Kurdish areas are safer than the rest of Iraq, roughly half the nation's postwar oil production deficit is traced to the very area where the wildcats are drilling. Seventy-five miles from Bina Bawi runs Iraq's biggest export route, the Kirkuk-to-Ceyhan pipeline. Before the war it carried 900,000 barrels a day from northern Iraq to Turkey's Mediterranean coast. Today it's lucky to do 500,000.

Oil was first discovered in Kirkuk in 1927 by the Turkish Petroleum Co. Its estimated 10-billion-barrel reserve caught the attention of Saddam, who in the mid-1970s began "cleansing" the area of Kurds, replacing them with Sunni Arabs. Since the U.S. invasion the Kurds have been moving back, and reclaiming petroleum assets, partly by letting foreign oil companies drill near Kirkuk.

Not that this settles the matter of who owns what oilfield. Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani, a Shia, insists that Baghdad will not recognize any contract between foreign oil companies and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Nechirvan Barzani, prime minister of the KRG, counters that the Kurds, who compose 17% of Iraq's population, will secede if their authority over regional oilfields is eroded. "We don't believe a centralized oil policy has been successful since Iraq's inception," says Qubad Talabani, the KRG's ambassador to the U.S. and son of Iraq's president.

How did Westerners get in? In 2002 Jalal Talabani, then president of the the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (now president of Iraq), signed up Turkey's Petoil and Genel Enerji to the first production-sharing agreements, under which the Kurds were promised roughly half of any oil produced. Petoil is a small oil explorer that owns refineries and transports oil across Turkey, making it a natural recipient of Kurdish crude. But Petoil needed a partner to shoulder some of the risk and put up the cash to drill Bina Bawi.

A Texas mining consultant who had worked with Petoil years ago suggested that it meet with Richard Anderson, Prime's chief executive, to discuss a possible deal. Anderson, now 53, flew to Ankara to chat with Petoil Chairman Güntekin Köksal and General Manager Ali Ak. After several months of negotiations Prime in 2004 decided to contribute several million dollars for 50% of Petoil's stake in Bina Bawi and several Iraqi oil prospects. They called the new joint venture Pet-Prime. "We thought a U.S. company would be an ideal partner in that region, for political, technical and economical reasons," says Ak in an e-mail exchange. "Prime Natural Resources was the first company to show an interest." Prime later sold 20% of its stake to Calibre for $5.5 million and another 20% to Hillwood Energy--a unit of of Hillwood Development Co., headed by H. Ross Perot Jr.--for what's thought to be an equal amount.

Prime Natural Resources is a closely held, secretive company. Acquired a decade ago by the New York City hedge fund Elliott Associates, Prime has an old oil hand at the helm. Anderson has been with the company since 1998; before that, as the managing partner of Hein & Associates, he presided over the audit committees of oil services companies like Boots & Coots and Grant Geophysical (other-otc: GRNPQ.PK - news - people ). Taking advantage of high oil prices, Anderson has sold most of Prime's oil and gas fields in east Texas and the Gulf of Mexico; it retains a big stake in an oilfield in Colombia.

If successful, Bina Bawi will be Prime's biggest investment. It has spent tens of millions of dollars evaluating seismic data and funding drilling crews, mostly Turks, Kurds and Romanians. Larger outlays will come once they find oil--typically for such projects, $300 million or more in pipelines and processing plants over the next decade.

Addax (latest-12-month sales: $2 billion) has already spent $124 million. A source close to the Taq Taq project says the company will have to shell out $3 billion over the next ten years to build out the infrastructure in order to get at its 45% interest in an estimated 2.7 billion barrels. (It recently expanded its agreement with the Kurds to include exploration in the Kewa Chirmila prospect, thought to hold 650 million barrels of oil.) This year the KRG intends to export some production from the project to the regional market. Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland and listed on the Toronto exchange, Addax is accustomed to working in tough places; it's in Nigeria alongside Shell and Chevron. Its partner in northern Iraq, Genel Enerji, is a division of Turkey's powerful Cukurova Group conglomerate, controlled by Chairman Mehmet Emin Karamehmet.

DNO has anted up approximately $100 million for three exploration deals in northern Iraq. That's bought a 55% share of any production, though it has to foot all the bills. With annual revenue of $300 million or so, DNO has interests in Yemen, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique and Norway's continental shelf.

Few stand to make more money than early investors at Calibre Energy of Washington, D.C. Before wildcatting in Iraq, Calibre was a tiny energy company controlled by veteran oilman Prentis Tomlinson, with a handful of oil and gas prospects in Texas. Over the last 30 years Tomlinson has operated a dozen companies, some of which flamed out. In the late 1990s Benz Energy, a Vancouver-exchange-listed exploration company, stumbled while developing the Oakvale gas field in Mississippi but stayed alive by selling assets to Prime Natural Resources. A few properties were held by Calibre, formed in 2005 and taken public in January 2006 in a reverse merger with a listed shell company called Hardwood Doors & Milling Specialties. After raising $18 million or so in several private placements, Calibre bought its stake in the Bina Bawi project in September.

With little more than a handful of wells in Texas, Calibre is still a very useful vehicle to its backers. In October it filed a prospectus with the Securities & Exchange Commission to sell 71 million shares bought by 160 early investors but never traded on the market. (Only 4 million Calibre shares change hands today.) The offering is timed to coincide with the end of drilling at Bina Bawi. Tomlinson, whose 20 million shares are worth a recent $52 million, says neither he nor any directors intend to sell in the offering. But what could the early investors reap? They paid $19.5 million for a total of 41.5 million shares and warrants. Average cost per share: 47 cents. Says Tomlinson, "It's a unique opportunity, with a very narrow window."

Ready, Aim, Drill
While war rages, a handful of Western outfits are risking capital--and life--to explore and produce plentiful oil. Uncle Sam and Iraqi feds hate side deals with the Kurds.

FIRST Initiative - Strengthening Financial Sectors

Information Exchange
Project Summary
Iraq: Analysis of Cash Movement and Development of Cash Movement Tracking System

Project Description
A Bankworld Advisor was analyzing cash movements among commercial banks and between banks, the central bank, and central bank branches, and designing and implementing a tracking system for cash movements. Activities included: identifying demand and sources of cash payments and transfers; assessing current levels of cash movements between banks and Central Bank in Baghdad and banks and central bank branches in governorates; developing an automated, reliable tracking report to allow complete and accurate analysis of market liquidity; and recommending procedural changes and innovative system to reduce cash movements.

Originally Posted by archangel

I thought it was suppose to be dollars.


Iraqi News
Thursday, January 04, 2007 Iraqi budget for 2007 allocated at 41b dinars
(MENAFN) In a press conference held in Iraq recently, the first deputy chairman of the Iraqi parliament stated that the general budget for 2007 is 41 billion dollars, and includes allocations for security affairs of 7.5 billion dollars. The official said that tthe budget had been referred to the Economic and Investment Committee in the Parliament for deliberation, indicating that the budget will offer more than 136 job opportunities for Iraqis. Meanwhile, tthe Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, said that the budget is encouraging and large compared to the past budgets. It is even more than the current year budget by 11 billion dollars, he added. It is worth mentioning that investment expenditure in this budget amounted to ten billion dollars and the expenditures allocated for security are 7.5 billion, in addition to doubling the expenditure of education to reach 6.2 billion dollars, while the health sector allocations are 1.8 billion dollars, at a rise of 71%.
Trade Bank of Iraq - Your Trade and Investment Partner in Iraq

In the headline it says 41 billion "dinar" and in the 1st sentence it says 41 billions "dollars". Is it a goof or is somebody saying it will be 1:1?

Originally Posted by michaeljordan

In the headline it says 41 billion "dinar" and in the 1st sentence it says 41 billions "dollars". Is it a goof or is somebody saying it will be 1:1?

MJ thats my question, I was wondering the same thing you were.

I am not sure if this was posted before but just in case it hasn't....here it is.

EuroInvestor.co.uk - DNO ASA - Northern Iraq - Update

DNO ASA - Northern Iraq - Update
28/12/2006 - 08:14

DNO is pleased to announce an update on activities in Northern Iraq:

* Agreement for increased working interest in the PSA's * Tawke Early Production Development * Drilling and seismic activities Agreement for Increased Working Interest in the PSA's:

The agreement with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) whereby DNO will be responsible for 100 % of the funding obligations of the PSA's in return for receiving additional 15 % Working Interest, has now been concluded and signed.
In addition some adjustments have been made to the Dihok PSA area.

Some areas at the eastern boarder have been removed in return for receiving some new acreage to the south. Another area has also been relinquished and no further relinquishments will be required until June 2011.

It is still very early in the exploration stage of the PSA area's, and a number of additional prospects & leads, which will be further investigated through exploration drilling, have been identified.

Tawke Early Production Plan The Tawke Early Production Plan is based on the successful results achieved from Tawke # 1 / 1A and Tawke # 2 wells.

Modifications of the Central Processing Facilities (CPF) have been completed and the CPF will now be transported to the Tawke area for installation and commissioning.

Installation of the pipeline which will connect the Tawke oil production to the main northern pipeline has also commenced, and approximately 8 km has been installed of a total of 42 km.

As previously reported, the CPF has the capacity to deliver approximately 50,000 bopd of the Tawke crude oil quality. As a result of this DNO will accelerate development drilling within the Tawke area. The full rig capacity (3 rigs) will be dedicated for the most part of 2007 to Tawke. A total of 18 development wells are planned to be drilled in 2007, which includes both oil producers and water injectors.

Drilling Status:

Tawke # 2:

Tawke # 2 was drilled as an appraisal well on the Tawke field. The well is located some 2 km to the west of the Tawke # 1 discovery well.

As previously reported, Tawke # 2 tested the same reservoir interval which flowed 5,000 bopd in Tawke # 1 and 1A. The Tawke # 2 well flowed 3,840 bopd, confirming good reservoir quality also at this location. Testing of an underlaying carbonate formation was also undertaken, but no oil flow rates were achieved. Tawke # 2 is now completed as an oil producer.

The rig has now moved to the Tawke # 4 location some 0.8 km to the north-east of Tawke # 1. Tawke # 4 will be drilled as a dedicated oil producer.

Khanke # 1:

Khanke # 1 has been drilled to a total depth of 3,551 meters. Testing was undertaken in three individual intervals which had hydrocarbon shows while drilling, but no oil flow was achieved. As Kanke # 1 is located within the Dihok PSA area, the well costs are recoverable from future Tawke oil production under the cost oil entitlement.

The rig will now be moved to the Tawke # 3 well site on the Tawke structure. This well is an exploration / appraisal well at the eastern extension of the Tawke area. This well will penetrate both the oil producing interval confirmed by Tawke # 1 / 1A and Tawke # 2, as well as the deeper intervals which where proved to be oil bearing in Tawke # 1, but not properly tested. If oil bearing intervals are confirmed and commercial flow rates are achieved, then Tawke # 3 will be completed as an oil producer.

Mobilizing the third Rig:

A third drilling rig will be mobilized to the Tawke area at the beginning of 2007. This will be a smaller carrier rig capable of drilling production wells as well as undertake work-overs, well repair and maintenance. The rig will commence operations at Tawke # 1 where some deeper reservoir intervals (> 2,000 meters) will be flow tested. Thereafter the rig will be used for development drilling across the Tawke Field.

Seismic activities:

Following completion of the 3D seismic campaign completed in October 2006, a further 2D seismic acquisition campaign (77 km) was completed across the Erbil PSA area. DNO plan to carry out an additional 300 km of 2D seismic within the Dihok PSA once the winter season has ended in Q1 2007.

Commenting on the results Managing Director Helge Eide says:

"With the significant progress that has been made on the Tawke Early Production project, we should be ready to produce the first oil from Tawke during first quarter of next year. Achieving this important near term target will mark another important milestone to KRG and DNO." DNO ASA 28 December 2006 Contact:

Media:

Helge Eide, MD DNO ASA

Originally Posted by CharmedPiper

I am not sure if this was posted before but just in case it hasn't....here it is.

EuroInvestor.co.uk - DNO ASA - Northern Iraq - Update

DNO ASA - Northern Iraq - Update
28/12/2006 - 08:14

DNO is pleased to announce an update on activities in Northern Iraq:

* Agreement for increased working interest in the PSA's * Tawke Early Production Development * Drilling and seismic activities Agreement for Increased Working Interest in the PSA's:

The agreement with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) whereby DNO will be responsible for 100 % of the funding obligations of the PSA's in return for receiving additional 15 % Working Interest, has now been concluded and signed.
In addition some adjustments have been made to the Dihok PSA area.

Some areas at the eastern boarder have been removed in return for receiving some new acreage to the south. Another area has also been relinquished and no further relinquishments will be required until June 2011.

It is still very early in the exploration stage of the PSA area's, and a number of additional prospects & leads, which will be further investigated through exploration drilling, have been identified.

Tawke Early Production Plan The Tawke Early Production Plan is based on the successful results achieved from Tawke # 1 / 1A and Tawke # 2 wells.

Modifications of the Central Processing Facilities (CPF) have been completed and the CPF will now be transported to the Tawke area for installation and commissioning.

Installation of the pipeline which will connect the Tawke oil production to the main northern pipeline has also commenced, and approximately 8 km has been installed of a total of 42 km.

As previously reported, the CPF has the capacity to deliver approximately 50,000 bopd of the Tawke crude oil quality. As a result of this DNO will accelerate development drilling within the Tawke area. The full rig capacity (3 rigs) will be dedicated for the most part of 2007 to Tawke. A total of 18 development wells are planned to be drilled in 2007, which includes both oil producers and water injectors.

Drilling Status:

Tawke # 2:

Tawke # 2 was drilled as an appraisal well on the Tawke field. The well is located some 2 km to the west of the Tawke # 1 discovery well.

As previously reported, Tawke # 2 tested the same reservoir interval which flowed 5,000 bopd in Tawke # 1 and 1A. The Tawke # 2 well flowed 3,840 bopd, confirming good reservoir quality also at this location. Testing of an underlaying carbonate formation was also undertaken, but no oil flow rates were achieved. Tawke # 2 is now completed as an oil producer.

The rig has now moved to the Tawke # 4 location some 0.8 km to the north-east of Tawke # 1. Tawke # 4 will be drilled as a dedicated oil producer.

Khanke # 1:

Khanke # 1 has been drilled to a total depth of 3,551 meters. Testing was undertaken in three individual intervals which had hydrocarbon shows while drilling, but no oil flow was achieved. As Kanke # 1 is located within the Dihok PSA area, the well costs are recoverable from future Tawke oil production under the cost oil entitlement.

The rig will now be moved to the Tawke # 3 well site on the Tawke structure. This well is an exploration / appraisal well at the eastern extension of the Tawke area. This well will penetrate both the oil producing interval confirmed by Tawke # 1 / 1A and Tawke # 2, as well as the deeper intervals which where proved to be oil bearing in Tawke # 1, but not properly tested. If oil bearing intervals are confirmed and commercial flow rates are achieved, then Tawke # 3 will be completed as an oil producer.

Mobilizing the third Rig:

A third drilling rig will be mobilized to the Tawke area at the beginning of 2007. This will be a smaller carrier rig capable of drilling production wells as well as undertake work-overs, well repair and maintenance. The rig will commence operations at Tawke # 1 where some deeper reservoir intervals (> 2,000 meters) will be flow tested. Thereafter the rig will be used for development drilling across the Tawke Field.

Seismic activities:

Following completion of the 3D seismic campaign completed in October 2006, a further 2D seismic acquisition campaign (77 km) was completed across the Erbil PSA area. DNO plan to carry out an additional 300 km of 2D seismic within the Dihok PSA once the winter season has ended in Q1 2007.

Commenting on the results Managing Director Helge Eide says:

"With the significant progress that has been made on the Tawke Early Production project, we should be ready to produce the first oil from Tawke during first quarter of next year. Achieving this important near term target will mark another important milestone to KRG and DNO." DNO ASA 28 December 2006 Contact:

Media:

Helge Eide, MD DNO ASA

If it is I'm giving a WOOT for future reference.

Originally Posted by Offshore-Wealth.com

Interesting,

I was sure it would end up on eBay. (g) Amazing times we live in where the craziest things are worth a fortune to some.

Good luck to all, Mike

LOL was thinking the same thing the day he got hung and saw the video

Press Communiqué

The central Bank of Iraq Board of Directors has convened a meeting early on the 25 th, September,2004,and considered a number of issues related to Banking, Monetary and Accounting policy, the Board decided that Bank Assets should be evaluated according to the traded US Dollar exchange rate at the Central Bank of Iraq auction on the last day of each month, applying the same procedure on the current Daily transactions and circulate that on the Banking System to act upon it according to the International Accounting Rules and International Monetary Fund requirements.

The Board also considered the application concerning the National Bank of Jordan partnership with Al Baraka Bank for Investment, and the application of Establishing a brunch for the Turkish Bank Ziraat, which will be considered upon completing the required documents and requirements according to Law No. 94 of 2004.

The Board also approved the Planned Budget for 2005.



Governor
Dr. Sinan Al Shabibi



I just e-mailed Albaraka Bank, telling them that I was interested in investing with them - but if they could let me know if the above referenced partnership(s) had ever transpired. I will keep you posted IF AND WHEN they return my e-mail. I am going to contact Bank Ziraat also.



Marlene in NY aka Xealthy


P.S. Interesting facts about Albaraka Bank in following post