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

Private Kurdish TV/Radio News Service Soon
http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/201...-service-soon/

Turkey to Develop Education in Kurdistan
http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/201...-in-kurdistan/

Iraq’s Nuclear Program needs US$4-5 billions (b), 10 years, for implementation, Minister:
http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=139883

BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: The Iraqi Minister of Science & Technology, Raid Fahmi, has said on Sunday that according to the new UN Security Council’s resolution to lift sanctions against Iraq, “nothing exists any longer to exploit the nuclear energy for peaceful purposes,” adding that “Iraq needs at least 10 years to implement its program for peaceful use of nuclear energy, in addition to its financial costs that range between US$4-5 billions (b).
“The new Security Council resolution has lifted all sanctions preventing Iraq to enter into the peaceful use of the nuclear energy,” Fahmi told the independent al-Alam Newspaper here on Sunday, adding that “Iraq, if it decides to implement the Resolution, as we understand it, it will be able to build several electro-nuclear power projects, i.e. electric-power generation stations, that operate with the use of nuclear energy.”
Minister Fahmi said that “Iraq had been finding it difficult to implement such projects due to UN Charter’s 7th Article; but now it can obtain research reactors and reactors to generate power, thing that shall open new horizons for the use of nuclear energy in different fields, including medical, water resources and agricultural fields.”
U.S. Vice President, Joseph Biden, had told a UN Security Council sesssion last Wednesday that the Council had decided to abolish sancations, issued against Iraq after its occupation of Kuwait in 1990, whilst Iraq’s Foreign Minister, Hoshiar Zibari, told the session that “Iraq still has a long way to settle its suspended problems with Kuwait.”
The Chairman of the Iraqi National Committee for Nuclear Energy, Fuad al-Mousaway, has expressed satisfaction for the UN Security Council’s resolution to lift sanctions imposed on Iraq for its use of nuclear energy for peaceful puroses, saying that the resolution “had come in the right time, due to the country’s need for the nuclear energy in different fields.”
“Iraq can obtain a scientific and technical support by the UN Agency for Nuclear Energy and other international agencies, whilst Iraq has efficient experts to initiate such mission in its preliminary stages,” Minister Fahmi concluded.

ISX opens week with 0.4% up
December 19, 2010 - 06:25:19
http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=139899
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: The Iraqi Stock Exchange (ISX) opened this week Sunday with a 0.4% up to close at 98.6 points as rates of shares of 18 out of a total 46 traded firms went up, compared to last week’s 98.2 points.
“More than one billion shares exchanged hands at 1.540 billion Iraqi dinars (roughly $1.2 million) through 532 deals with rates of shares of 18 firms going up, 17 down and 11 retaining their previous levels,” according to an ISX news bulletin received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Non-Iraqi investors concluded 95 purchase deals worth more than 378 million dinars, mostly over the banking as well as the service, industrial and hotel sectors, 24% of the overall trading, and zero sale deals.
The banking sector took the lead with 46% of the trading activities today (Dec. 19) through 199 deals worth 709 million dinars over 12 firms, followed by the industrial sector with 25% through 173 deals worth 391 million dinars over 14 firms, the hotel sector with 18% through 81 deals worth 277 million dinars over eight firms and the service sector with 117 million dinars through 47 deals over four firms.
Trading was modest over the insurance, agricultural and investment sectors.
The ISX witnessed its first E-trading session on April 19, 2009 over five registered companies, three banks and two hotels. The banks were: Ashur International Bank (AIB), Al-Mansour Bank and the Iraqi Credit Bank while the hotels were: Ashtar Hotel and Al-Mansour Hotel.
On June 7, the Iraqi Middle East Investment Bank and the Warka Bank joined the electronic trading sessions.
The ISX now holds five sessions from Sunday to Thursday.

Iraqi Parliament’s session postponed till for Monday, to vote for new cabinet:
December 19, 2010 - 01:10:57
http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=139892
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Sunday’s session of the Iraqi Parliament had been adjourned to convene on Monday, to discuss the issue of forming the new government, according to a request by Prime Minister Designate, Nouri al-Maliki,” according to a source in the Parliament’s media office on Sunday.
“Tomorrow (Monday)’s session shall be allocated to discuss the issue of forming the new government, in response to a request by Prime Minister Designate, Nouri al-Maliki, addressed to the Parliament’s Speaker, to announce the formation of his new government,” he said, adding that Sunday’s session had voted for the Grand Faw Project in southern Iraq’s Basra Province.

Iraq Oil Output to Rise in Early 2011, Minister Says
http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...ster-says.html

(Updates with details of gas deals from first paragraph.)

Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Iraq forecast a 17 percent rise in oil output next year and invited companies from South Korea and Kazakhstan to sign immediately a delayed contract for the Akkas gas field, Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said.

Iraq, holder of the world’s fifth-largest oil reserves, wants foreign investors to help it boost production of crude and natural gas. Output of both has suffered from insurgent attacks and a lack of investment since Saddam Hussein’s ouster in 2003. Seeking to end the stagnation, the government has awarded 12 oil contracts and three gas licences.

“Iraq’s oil production capacity will increase to 2.75 million barrels a day early next year,” Shahristani said in an interview in Baghdad yesterday.

The country now produces about 2.35 million barrels of crude a day. Shahristani attributed the expected increase to investments by the international oil companies that have signed contracts to develop Iraqi fields.

While Iraq generates most of its revenue from oil sales, the government wants to produce gas as fuel for power plants, which have been unable to meet domestic demand. Officials hope to develop Iraqi gas reserves for electricity and export.

Iraq was to have signed the Akkas gas-field agreement with Korea Gas Corp. and Kazakhstan’s KazMunaiGaz National Co. on Nov. 14. Iraq delayed the signing to clear up a “misunderstanding” over the planned use of fuel from the deposit, Abdul Kareem al-Luaibi, an Oil Ministry deputy, said at the time.

Companies Invited

“We have invited the companies to come to Iraq and sign the contract as soon as possible,” Shahristani said yesterday.

The minister added that negotiations were continuing with Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Mitsubishi Corp. about a project to capture associated gas at oil fields in southern Iraq.

“Until now the negotiations are not completed between the oil ministry and the coalition led by Shell over the creation of the joint gas company,” he said. “Once they are completed, it will be submitted for approval to the Council of Ministers.”

An agreement with Shell and Mitsubishi is due to be signed by the end of January, Ali Hussain Khudair, the director-general of Iraq’s South Gas Co., said on Nov. 25.

The government gave initial approval on June 29 for the creation of a venture with Shell and Mitsubishi, to be called Basra Gas Co. The venture would be owned 51 percent by state-run South Gas, with Shell holding 44 percent and Mitsubishi the remaining 5 percent.

--Editors: Bruce Stanley, Digby Lidstone

Iraq tenders for four new power stations
(AFP) – 1 day ago
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...5a522cd977.a51
BAGHDAD — Iraq's electricity minister launched a tender on Saturday for firms to build four power stations that would boost the country's power production by nearly 50 percent.
The attempts to ramp up electricity output come after a summer marked by countrywide demonstrations against low levels of power, more than seven years after the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.
"The auctions are for four sites," Hussein al-Shahristani, the oil minister and interim electricity minister in the outgoing cabinet, told reporters at a news conference in Baghdad.
"We have chosen these locations based on their proximity to sources of water, gas or oil, but the stations will be connected to the national grid.
"This is the first round of auctions of this kind for the power sector, and there will be others," he added.
Shahristani said the successful firms would use equipment bought from General Electric in December 2008 to build a power station near the southern port city of Basra with a capacity of 1,250 megawatts, and one each in Samawa, Amara and Diwaniyah with capacities of 500 megawatts.
The latter three sites are all south of Baghdad. All four are expected to be up and running in between 18 and 24 months.
The Diwaniyah and Amara stations will run on gas, while the other two will run on oil until 2014 when Iraq's local gas output will rise sufficiently for all four to be powered by gas.
According to Shahristani, 22 foreign companies have signalled an interest in the projects. Firms have two weeks to submit their offers, with a decision to be made five weeks later.
"The most important criteria will be the price per kilowatt hour that the companies will sell electricity to the national grid, as well as their technical expertise and financial plans," he said.
Iraq's electricity demand totals around 15,000 megawatts, compared with total supply of 7,000 megawatts -- 6,000 megawatts produced locally, and 1,000 megawatts imported from overseas.
Dozens of Iraqis staged violent protests in August in the southern city of Nasiriyah to demand better power supplies, wounding 16 people including 10 policemen.
The protest was reminiscent of demonstrations in June in several other cities over power rationing during summer temperatures of up to 54 degrees Celsius (130 degrees Fahrenheit).
Only those with access to their own generators and fuel were able to refrigerate food or air-condition their homes around the clock, while others were rendered helpless in the oppressive summer heat, triggering the protests.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose electricity minister resigned in the wake of the protests, warned in June that two more years of shortages lay ahead as there was no quick fix to the problem.

Iraqi Prime Minister Announces Cabinet Choices

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/...112195824.html

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki submitted a list of his new Cabinet members late Monday, putting Iraqis one step closer to a new government after a 9-month political stalemate.

Iraq's Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi announced he had received a list of 42 ministers and top government posts. He said parliament will vote on the new ministers on Tuesday............

Iraq's Camp Bucca becoming commercial center

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...122002214.html
BAGHDAD -- Camp Bucca, the sprawling former prison once run by the U.S. military in southern Iraq, will be turned into a commercial center with offices, warehouses, aviation and fuel services to support investors, an Iraqi official said Monday.
Basra Investment Commission leader Haider Ali Fadhil said the $245 million-deal with the Iraqi Kufan Group and U.S. Northern Gulf Partners marks a significant step toward rebuilding Iraq as it emerges from decades of war.............

Oil ministry achieves highest production since 2003

The daily oil production in Iraq rose to 2.5 million barrels, the biggest since 2003, spokesman of the oil ministry said on Wednesday.

“The daily oil production rose by 10% through cooperation among national and foreign companies,” Essam Jehad told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, pointing out that this is the highest production since 2003.

Iraq’s newly appointed oil minister said the country’s daily oil production has increased by 100,000 barrels a day to 2.5 million barrels a day.

Abdul-Karim Elaibi said the increase came from two southern major oil fields that are being developed by Western companies.

Elaibi says his top priority is to develop Iraq’s dilapidated oil infrastructure and increase export capacity from southern terminals to 4.5 million barrels a day, from the current 1.6 million barrels a day.

The minister’s statement on Wednesday marked his first full day in office.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=139992