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

Iraq to let United Nations comtinue control of oil

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العراق يستأنف تحميل النفط من مرفأ خور العماية
Iraq resumes oil loadings from the port of Khor Amaih
(الفرنسية-أرشيف)
(French-Archive)
أعلن العراق قراره إبقاء هيئة رقابية تابعة للأمم المتحدة لمراقبة استخدام ثروته النفطية لعام آخر عقب أسابيع فقط من إعلان بغداد إلغاء الهيئة.
Iraq announced its decision to keep the regulatory body of the United Nations to control the use of its oil wealth for another year, only a few weeks after the announcement of the cancellation of Baghdad.
وقال نائب سفير العراق لدى الأمم المتحدة فيصل أمين الاسترابادي إن هذا القرار اتخذ للإبقاء على مجلس المراقبة والمشورة الدولي بناء على طلب من الحكومات المانحة التي تقدم مساعدات لإعادة إعمار العراق.
The deputy ambassador to the United Nations Secretary-Faisal Istrabadi said the decision was made to keep the international observation and advice at the request of the government aid donor to the reconstruction of Iraq.
وأشار الاسترابادي إلى قيام المجلس بدور وصفه بالمفيد حتى الآن مع اعتقاد دول مانحة بأنه ما زال مفيدا للبلاد.
Istrabadi pointed to the Council's role and status Palmvid so far donor countries with the belief that it is still useful to the country.
ويأتي هذا القرار بعد ثلاثة أسابيع فقط من إبلاغ الحكومة العراقية المجلس بأنه سيلغى في نهاية العام الحالي لتحل محله هيئة مراقبة عراقية سيطلق عليها اسم لجنة الخبراء الماليين.
The decision came after three weeks of the Iraqi government informed the Council that abolished at the end of this year to replace the Iraqi control would be renamed the financial experts.
read the rest of it here الأخبار*-*اقتصـاد*-*العراق يبقي هيئة أممية تراقب استخدام ثروته الن�طية

Announcement No.(837)

D.G. of Foreign Exchange Control

The 837 daily currency auction was held in the Central Bank of Iraq day Sunday 2007 / 1/7so the results were as follows :

Details Notes
Number of banks 5 -----
Auction price selling dinar / US $ 1325 -----
Auction price buying dinar / US $ ----- -----
Amount sold at auction price (US $) 3.885.000 -----
Amount purchased at Auction price (US $) -----
Total offers for buying (US $) 3.885.000 -----
Total offers for selling (US $) ----- -----

Originally Posted by readytogo

Mrs CK,

I enjoy your posts very much and appreciate the time, effort, and diligence you must expend to be able to post such diverse and extensive information as you have always done. I would very much like the reference material/site you from which you took this info please........................

Monica

Seem your reply yesterday and send you a PM - must have gotten lost with the changes.
If you will PM your email address I will send you my OIL file of everthing I have found from google, research library's, etc. It's to long to post and way to long to send by PM's. History is fun to research.

Thanks
Chris

Interesting.....???

I've been following this site for rates for a few weeks or a little after neno made his source thread.

The interesting thing is the rate for the next day always changed about 8PM my time (EST) to the next day, ie. Saturday to Sunday. Oddly last night the rate never changed and Sunday still has not posted.

MENAFN - Middle East North Africa . Financial Network Currency Charts,Currency Update,Money Markets,Analysis,Projection

Iraq poised to end drought for thirsting oil giants
After 35 years, the third-largest reserves in the world are to be opened to American and British companies
By Danny Fortson
Published: 07 January 2007
For more than three decades, foreign oil companies wanting into Iraq have been like children pressed against the sweet shop window - desperately seeking to feast on the goodies but having no way of getting through the door.

That could soon change.

The Iraqi Council of Ministers is expected to approve, as early as today, a controversial new hydrocarbon law, heavily pushed by the US and UK governments, that will radically redraw the Iraqi oil industry and throw open the doors to the third-largest oil reserves in the world. It would allow the first large-scale operation of foreign oil companies in the country since the industry was nationalised in 1972.

It would also be a shot in the arm for the global petroleum industry. The biggest oil companies are finding it ever harder to uncover new reserves to replace those that are going dry. Iraq sits on a sea of easily tapped, high-quality crude.

For a sector desperate for a panacea, the stakes couldn't be higher. By conservative estimates, Iraq represents about one-tenth of the world's reserves at 115 billion barrels. Most of this is untapped or under-exploited. Former oil minister Issam Al-Chalabi was quoted recently saying that a fully functioning Iraqi oil industry could generate $100bn (£52bn) in annual revenue.

The new legislation "is a redrawing of the whole Iraqi oil industry into a modern standard," said Khaled Salih, a spokesman for the Kurdish Regional Government, a party in the negotiations. "It will allow new technologies to come in to revitalise the oil industry and allow foreign investors to invest long-term in Iraq and upgrade infrastructure."

Iraqi government sources say the hope is to have the law on the books by March.

No one expects big players such as Exxon, BP and Shell to jump into the country until the security situation stabilises. They are jockeying to stake their claims now for exploitation later. "It's a mad rush to get something there," said James Paul, the executive director of Global Policy Forum, a New York watchdog group. "The companies are saying, 'Before any troops are withdrawn, we have to have these contracts.' "

So why are the oil companies so desperate to get a foot in the door? For one, they are struggling to keep production increasing in line with demand, which last year rose to more than 82 million barrels a day. Those rises have been driven in large part by the growth of the Chinese economy. The tide of oil nationalism in places such as Venezuela, where the stranglehold applied by President Hugo Chavez on the industry has led to lower production, has shifted more pressure on to the rest of the industry.

Also, the cost-per-barrel of extracting oil in Iraq is among the lowest in the world because the reserves are relatively close to the surface . This contrasts starkly with the expensive and risky lengths to which the oil industry must go to find new reserves elsewhere - witness the super-deep offshore drilling and cost-intensive techniques needed to extract oil form Canada's tar sands.

"The majors are finding it increasingly difficult to locate actual black oil resources," said Praveen Martis, an analyst at research firm Wood Mackenzie.

The most coveted sites in Iraq are the Majnoon and West Qurna fields, both close to Basra in the south of the country. Together, they fields represent nearly a quarter of Iraq's proven reserves. Total and Russia's Lukoil had deals in place with Saddam Hussein's government on the Majnoon and West Qurna fields respectively.

It is arguable whether these contracts are still valid, and Exxon is now seen by insiders as the frontrunner to nab the rights to the Majnoon field.

Other parts of the country, such as the Western desert, remain virtually unexplored and could be home to large reserves.

Critical to whether the petro-leum industry will be able to exploit Iraq's buried treasure will be the introduction of production-sharing agreements (PSAs). These are contracts that allow the state to retain legal ownership of its reserves but let international companies share in the profits from extracting oil, in exchange for investing in the infrastructure and operation of the wells, pipelines and refineries. The agreements would be the key to the sweeping development of the Iraqi industry by international companies.

According to an early draft of the legislation that was sent to oil companies this past summer and obtained by The Independent on Sunday, PSAs are the centrepiece of the new legal framework.

Their introduction would be a first for a major Middle Eastern power and is sure to be highly contentious. Saudi Arabia and Iran, the world's number one and two producers, both control their industries tightly with no appreciable foreign company collaboration. According to the Iraqi draft legislation, the PSAs could be fixed for as long as 30 years, which would provide a welcome framework in which the companies could work. Though they are preferred by the oil industry, PSAs don't always guarantee profits for Western companies.

The Russian government depended heavily on PSAs in the 1990s when it was far weaker economically than it is now. The Kremlin has since made moves to wind back these agreements. The most notorious instance came last month when Shell was forced to cede a controlling stake in the $20bn Sakhalin 2 oil and gas project back to the Russian state-owned gas giant Gazprom, after months of brinkmanship from the Kremlin.

Yet for all the black gold that lies under the sand of the Iraqi desert, any potential payoff for Western oil giants is years off. An enormous amount of work remains to be done. The infra-structure is decrepit and patchy after years of neglect, and there is the risk of sabotage and wars. The country is in a state of near anarchy and the debate about the ownership and exploitation of its main asset, which accounts for nearly all of Iraq's GDP and export revenues, is still to be had.

But if the new hydrocarbon proposals pass through their fledgling parliament, the Iraqi people will be forced to share their buried treasure with the West's oil giants.

Hi Mike,


Could you please repost this link it's bad.

Originally Posted by Mike5200

The decision to lift the value of the Iraqi dinar has come as a result of studies value



He said the Finance Minister Baqir Jabr counterpart that the Iraqi dinar is Mlhoudha improvement during the current period.
.He added that the strike caused fluctuations in the local market due to some rumors that arise for blocking this improvement.
.Pointing out that the Iraqi Central Bank's decision to raise the value of the Iraqi dinar against the foreign currencies is a correct decision and the result of studies aimed to raise the value of a reduction in the purchasing power of the Iraqi people before everything else.
.He pointed out that the plans of the ministry absorbed all future programs in the budget for this year in order to stimulate the Iraqi economy properly

http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?h...asp%3FID%3D2819
__________________

Future of Iraq: The spoils of war
How the West will make a killing on Iraqi oil riches
By Danny Fortson, Andrew Murray-Watson and Tim Webb
Published: 07 January 2007
Iraq's massive oil reserves, the third-largest in the world, are about to be thrown open for large-scale exploitation by Western oil companies under a controversial law which is expected to come before the Iraqi parliament within days.

The US government has been involved in drawing up the law, a draft of which has been seen by The Independent on Sunday. It would give big oil companies such as BP, Shell and Exxon 30-year contracts to extract Iraqi crude and allow the first large-scale operation of foreign oil interests in the country since the industry was nationalised in 1972.

The huge potential prizes for Western firms will give ammunition to critics who say the Iraq war was fought for oil. They point to statements such as one from Vice-President Dick Cheney, who said in 1999, while he was still chief executive of the oil services company Halliburton, that the world would need an additional 50 million barrels of oil a day by 2010. "So where is the oil going to come from?... The Middle East, with two-thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies," he said.

Oil industry executives and analysts say the law, which would permit Western companies to pocket up to three-quarters of profits in the early years, is the only way to get Iraq's oil industry back on its feet after years of sanctions, war and loss of expertise. But it will operate through "production-sharing agreements" (or PSAs) which are highly unusual in the Middle East, where the oil industry in Saudi Arabia and Iran, the world's two largest producers, is state controlled.

Opponents say Iraq, where oil accounts for 95 per cent of the economy, is being forced to surrender an unacceptable degree of sovereignty.

Proposing the parliamentary motion for war in 2003, Tony Blair denied the "false claim" that "we want to seize" Iraq's oil revenues. He said the money should be put into a trust fund, run by the UN, for the Iraqis, but the idea came to nothing. The same year Colin Powell, then Secretary of State, said: "It cost a great deal of money to prosecute this war. But the oil of the Iraqi people belongs to the Iraqi people; it is their wealth, it will be used for their benefit. So we did not do it for oil."

Supporters say the provision allowing oil companies to take up to 75 per cent of the profits will last until they have recouped initial drilling costs. After that, they would collect about 20 per cent of all profits, according to industry sources in Iraq. But that is twice the industry average for such deals.

Greg Muttitt, a researcher for Platform, a human rights and environmental group which monitors the oil industry, said Iraq was being asked to pay an enormous price over the next 30 years for its present instability. "They would lose out massively," he said, "because they don't have the capacity at the moment to strike a good deal."

Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, Barham Salih, who chairs the country's oil committee, is expected to unveil the legislation as early as today. "It is a redrawing of the whole Iraqi oil industry [to] a modern standard," said Khaled Salih, spokesman for the Kurdish Regional Government, a party to the negotiations. The Iraqi government hopes to have the law on the books by March.

Several major oil companies are said to have sent teams into the country in recent months to lobby for deals ahead of the law, though the big names are considered unlikely to invest until the violence in Iraq abates.

James Paul, executive director at the Global Policy Forum, the international government watchdog, said: "It is not an exaggeration to say that the overwhelming majority of the population would be opposed to this. To do it anyway, with minimal discussion within the [Iraqi] parliament is really just pouring more oil on the fire."

Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman and a former chief economist at Shell, said it was crucial that any deal would guarantee funds for rebuilding Iraq. "It is absolutely vital that the revenue from the oil industry goes into Iraqi development and is seen to do so," he said. "Although it does make sense to collaborate with foreign investors, it is very important the terms are seen to be fair."

Neno, Marek and others!

Thanks for solving the problem, too bad posts were lost!

Let's move on, I think we are more rapid in that than Iraq!

Originally Posted by Inscrutable

Hi Mike,


Could you please repost this link it's bad.

http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?h...asp%3FID%3D2819
Still bad had to get from another board - works over there!

Ok, here it is again, because of the lost post!

NO ISX TOMMOROW!!
FIRST TRADING SESSION ON THE 10TH!!

While mentioned by Warka that there would be a trading session on the 8th of January!!

It is confirmed by Warka!

Something is going on!