Thread: Archive News - Iraqi Dinar Think Tank - 06/10/2010 - 24/01/2011

NEWSMAKER-Shahristani, architect of Iraq's oil future
http://af.reuters.com/article/energy...6BH02920101218

* Oversaw deals that could make oil rival to Saudi Arabia

* Seen as guarantor of international oil deals

* Man of integrity, but has enemies

By Rania El Gamal and Barbara Lewis

BAGHDAD/LONDON, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Iraq's incumbent Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani, who senior sources say will keep his job in Iraq's new government, faces an uphill struggle to achieve ambitious oil output targets and allay fears within OPEC over the scale of its plans. [ID:nLDE6BH01V]

A nuclear scientist by training and a survivor of torture under the regime of Saddam Hussein, Shahristani's strength of mind helped him to forge deals with foreign oil firms that could quadruple Iraq's oil output.

Iraq has ambitious plans to boost production capacity from 2.5 million barrels a day to 12 million bpd over the next six or seven years, but sceptical analysts say 6-7 million bpd is a more realistic target.

Even that goal, however, would give it much more weight in OPEC, currently dominated by the world's top oil exporter Saudi Arabia, and prompt some hard negotiations in the oil producers' cartel about the level of Iraq's output quota.

Within Iraq, obstacles to Shahristani's plans include a lack of security, decades-old laws, crumbling infrastructure and sectarian divides. [ID:nLDE69L1PI]

"He was the right person to be in charge during the bid rounds because he was not going to be bought by anybody," said Bill Farren-Price of Petroleum Policy Intelligence.

"But is he the right person to be in charge for the implementation phase, where you need someone who understands the industry and gets things done?"

For international oil companies, his presence in the oil ministry amounts to a pledge that contracts he agreed will be honoured in the absence of any formal guarantee as Iraq still lacks a new oil and gas law.

For the Kurds, who have signed oil deals that Baghdad has declared unconstitutional, he is enemy number one.

"Shahristani looks like a guarantor of continuity from the point of view of the companies investing in the south of Iraq," said Samuel Ciszuk, senior energy analyst at IHS.

"(He) has built himself a reputation as a capable technocrat and ally to (Prime Minister Nuri) al-Maliki, but has also become the nemesis of Iraq's Kurdish factions for pushing hard to extend national control over the oil and gas resources in the Kurdistan region."

JAILED, TORTURED UNDER SADDAM

Born in 1942, Shahristani studied in Britain, Russia and Canada and became senior scientific adviser at Iraq's Atomic Energy Commission, where he was arrested in 1979 by Saddam Hussein's agents for his activities against the regime.

By his own account, he was stripped, hung from the ceiling by his wrists and subjected to electric shocks and beatings. He has said he recited mathematical formulae to help him survive.

After seven months in jail, he was taken in front of Saddam's half-brother, Barzan al-Tikriti, who offered to free him if he would work on Iraq's secret nuclear weapons programme.

"Anybody who refuses to serve his country does not deserve to be alive," Shahristani quoted Tikriti as telling him.

"I agree with you that the person must serve his country but what you are asking me is not a service to the country," Shahristani replied, he said in his book Escaping to Freedom, which he wrote in 1999. He was eventually sentenced to 20 years and spent 11 in prison, some in solitary confinement.

Shahristani escaped the notorious Abu Ghraib prison as bombs fell during the 1991 Gulf War and fled with his children and Canadian wife to Iran where he ran a group helping Iraqi refugees.

He returned to Iraq in 2003 and turned down a chance to head the interim government before being made oil minister in 2006.

KURDISH DEALS

Those who worked with Shahristani have divergent opinions of a man who, although lacking experience in the industry, took a tough line with firms queuing up to develop some of the world's most promising oilfields.

Politicians and oil officials said he also took a firm stance in fighting corruption when he took over the oil ministry, and has been praised for leading a largely transparent auction process. A devout Shi'ite Muslim, he lives a simple life and in some ways has not been altered by his time in office.

"I met Mr. Shahristani in 2006 in London and he wasn't smiling then. That was before we won any contracts," said a foreign oil executive. "I met him this year again in Baghdad after we won the contracts and he's still not smiling."

Critics say he is not receptive to advice.

The central government and the regional Kurdish government have been at loggerheads for months over deals Kurdistan signed with foreign oil firms. Shahristani has repeatedly said the contracts are illegal and has made many enemies.

Kurdish officials hope a breakthrough in talks to form a new central government will lead to a deal to pay the firms and restart exports from their region, despite doubts Shahristani will change his stance.

"When he says no, it is no," said an oil official who works closely with him. "They will reach a compromise, but he will not back down completely from what he said before."

OPEC POLICY

Shahristani has said he expects an OPEC output limit of no less than that of the group's most influential member, Saudi Arabia. Emerging from the shadow of war and sanctions, Iraq is exempt from the targets the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries uses to set supply levels.

But as Baghdad embarks on unprecedented development, OPEC will at some point need to bring Iraq back into the fold to stop millions of barrels of new supply from destabilising markets.

The rise of Iraq as an oil power would rattle Riyadh, already suspicious of the new-found political supremacy of Iraq's Shi'ite majority since the fall of Saddam, a Sunni.

Iraq's development is also likely to stoke tensions with Iran, OPEC's No. 2 producer. Higher output from Iraq could lower oil prices and steal market share from others.

Shahristani has said there was no need for OPEC quota talks before output reaches 4 or 5 million bpd, which could be in two or three years' time. [ID:nLDE69U07P]

"The issue of an Iraqi OPEC quota will clearly be of strategic importance to Iraq," said Ciszuk. "I think we should expect negotiations to become quite complex when we get there, but then that depends on what Iraq's potential will look like at that point."

Nujaifi praises the efforts of the countries that withdrew UN sanctions from Iraq
Saturday, December 18th 2010 1:24 PM
http://www.aknews.com/en/aknews/4/203347/

Najaf, Dec. 18 (AKnews) - The religious authority, Bashir al-Nujaifi praised on Saturday the efforts of the countries that contributed to the removal of the UN’s chapter 7 sanctions from Iraq and called on Iraqi officials to intensify their efforts to serve the people and control the country’s finances.

Al-Nujaifi, one of the four religious authorities in Najaf said in a statement that the hopes that the injustice of unemployment and lack of basic services for the Iraqi people will soon be a thing of the past.

The U.N. Security Council lifted on Wednesday key international sanctions imposed on Iraq in the early 1990s when Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion of Kuwait.

The first resolution passed by the 15-nation council lifted the 1991 sanction to prevent Iraq developing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

A second resolution brought to an end the oil-for-food program which permitted the Saddam administration use billions of dollars of oil money to buy food and medicine between 1996 and 2003.

In a third resolution, U.N. protection of hundreds of millions of dollars in the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI) which was established after the US-led invasion in 2003 to manage oil and other revenues was extended by six months.

Central Bank of Iraq: Iraq emerged from the effects of the seventh item on the economic situation

Central Bank of Iraq, Thursday, for the economy of the country's liberation in full after the decision of the UN Security Council yesterday to lift the sanctions imposed on it under Chapter VII.

The UN Security Council voted yesterday, Wednesday, unanimously approved three resolutions concerning the lifting of the embargo imposed on Iraq on the import of nuclear material for peaceful purposes, and cancel the oil for food program, and extended immunity for damages imposed under Chapter VII until the end of June next.

The central bank adviser said the appearance of Mohammed, told the Kurdish news agency (Rn), said that "the Iraqi economy liberated completely from all the international restrictions placed on it since almost 20 years because of the policies of the former regime," pointing out that "Iraq came out of Chapter VII, and the issue of compensation Kuwait does not affect the economic reality of Iraq. "

He explained that "the protection of Iraqi funds internationalist for six months to come came at the request of Iraq so he can qualify and put it to receive funds from the new," noting that "the government was able to convince the Member States in the Security Council in its ability to harmonize economic with a new global system of economic according to changes in the Iraqi economy" .

Mohammed indicated that "the economic institutions of Iraq will work during the next six months to limit the claims that may be brought by some businessmen against Iraq."

The former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion of Kuwait in 1990, on the impact of sanctions imposed on Iraq from the international community and put under Chapter VII, which makes it a country threatening world peace and security.

Included international sanctions prevented the import of chemicals and nuclear technology that could be used in a secret nuclear programs, chemical and biological weapons.

Has allowed the United Nations in 1995 for Iraq to sell oil in return for food, called the program "oil-for-lunch" No. 986

http://www.markazaliraq.net/?state=news&viewId=5997

16th December 2010

CBI defends independence

In this regard, said adviser to the CBI and the Director of Planning and Statistics in the bank the appearance of Mohammed Saleh said that Iraqi law itself prohibits borrowing from the reserves of Iraq's cash, especially since there are substantial financial resources from the state and the public sector amounting to about 29 trillion dinars can be mobilized in the face of disability.

Counsel indicated that the Iraqi Central Bank reserves Reserved for service in Iraq in case of emergency, but compromised in normal circumstances cause an imbalance in the balance between monetary stability on the one hand, and mismanagement of public finances from the other side, pointing To the weakness of the investment side in the budget, wondering about the reason for borrowing in the absence of capacity to implement projects.

And give rise to prosecution of the Iraqi Central Bank to borrow reserves from the issue of independence enjoyed by the institution of cash. In this regard Counsel confirmed the appearance of Mohammed Saleh said that the Central Bank of jealous of its independence in the framework of the financial year to be responsible to the legislature for the safety of monetary policy.

http://www.iraqhurr.org/content/article/2250441.html

Oil denies contract with U.S. company Chevron to develop one of the fields

Denied the Director of Information and Ministry of Oil, Assem Jihad, Saturday, what moved the site and insiders of the Ministry contracted with the American company Chevron to develop an oil field in Iraq.

The Jihad told (Voices of Iraq) that "The oil ministry has contracted with the U.S. company Chevron to develop an oil field in Iraq in licensing rounds, the first, second and third."

He was surprised jihad site that Chaeliks been published on its pages that the company mentioned above had contracted with the Iraqi Oil Ministry to develop an oil field, saying that "the ministry contracted with the oil companies in public and to public opinion, domestic and international, in a transparent manner."

The British Guardian newspaper said that one of the diplomatic documents posted on Wikileaks, which was leaked to them revealed that Chevron has negotiated with Iran on oil field development through the Iran-Iraq border, despite U.S. sanctions on Tehran.

http://radionawa.com/Ar/NewsDetailN....826&LinkID=155

33 companies complete for Iraqi Power Plants
http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/201...-power-plants/

Major Progress in Anbar Gas Stand-Off
http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/201...gas-stand-off/

150,000 Jobs at Iraq's Grand Paw Fort
http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/201...rand-faw-port/

ENI to Pump Cash into Basra
http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/201...sh-into-basra/

Update on Iraqi Oil Production
http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/201...il-production/