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

'Iraq is the new Dubai' :ro_emote: :party: :party:

Financial firms who have successfully invested in Dubai should turn their attention to opportunities in Iraq, according to a businessman who has tasted success in both markets.

Shwan Ibrahim Taha, who worked as fund manager in Dubai before becoming chairman of an investment firm in Iraq, said that while security issues remain, investors prepared to pursue business in Iraq will find a business environment comparable to Dubai in the late 1990s.

"The mood shift I have seen in Iraq in the last six months indicates that some serious money is probably being prepared to go into Iraq," Taha told experts at a recent conference devoted to investment opportunities in Iraq.

"The difficulties in putting money into Dubai's market back in the late 1990s and early 2000s are not too different to Iraq [now]," he told delegates at the event in Bahrain.

The political uncertainty which remains in Iraq after March elections failed to produce a new government, and the remaining threat of deadly attacks against foreign firms, has not been enough to deter hedge funds from preparing to enter the country, according to Taha, chairman of the Baghdad-based Rabee Securities.

"There was nothing to dissuade these hedge funds and frontier funds from actually investing in Iraq," he said. "And the reason is they have seen it all."

Their interest has only grown stronger as Iraq's economic isolation saved it from the worst of the global financial crisis.

"The rewards have been unmentioned. We started getting a lot of attention when suddenly everyone noticed the whole global stock market had collapsed and there is one country that has not collapsed - it's Iraq.

So everybody started asking 'why, what happened?'

"[Admittedly] that's a sword with two edges. It means that Iraq is on another planet and is orbiting in its own way and it's not integrated."

But that will not always be the case, Taha believes, and Iraq has the potential to emulate the sudden economic development of neighbours like Dubai.

"We will actually see thriving capital markets in Iraq in the next five to ten years," he added.

http://www.ipairaq.com/index.php?nam...onomy&id=31019

Oil : Do not delay signing an investment agreement with Shell Gas and Mitsubishi and we will send the contract to the Council of Ministers for endorsement

Confirmed that the Iraqi Oil Ministry, on Wednesday, the absence of any delay the signing of investment agreement gas associated with oil, with Shell and Mitsubishi, indicating that it is studying the response the two world wars on the inquiries of legal and technical on the pattern of the contract, send it later to the Council of Ministers for endorsement.

He said ministry spokesman Assem Jihad, Oil in an interview for "Alsumaria News", "an ad hoc committee in the ministry is reviewing the Model Agreement between the Ministry of Oil, Shell and Mitsubishi, will represent to the Council of Ministers for approval as soon as the review of both technical and legal."

The Shell is a global leader in oil and gas, revealed last Sunday, "Alsumaria News," that Iraq is losing every day some seven million dollars due to the reluctance of the Oil Ministry to sign the final contract with Shell and Mitsubishi to invest in gas associated with oil, indicating that this number will increase In the coming years because of the absence of a clause in oil contracts for the first licensing round, the oil companies need to invest the associated gas.

Jihad added that "the response the two companies to queries from the ministry of legal and reached to the relevant committee last Thursday, which began immediately after the weekly holiday, study," noting that "The oil ministry envisages the accuracy in the preparation of the contract for up to the Council of Ministers without gaps," as he put it.

The Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad, Oil , said in an interview for "Alsumaria News" last Sunday, said that the Office of the contracts and licenses in the oil ministry some technical inquiries and legal final agreement with Shell and Mitsubishi, which is awaiting a response from before them, stressing that it will sign the contract Immediately upon receipt of the answers, individual vice-president of Shell's Middle East and North Africa Mounir Bou Aziz permission to Jihad, saying that the two companies Rdta quickly legal questions the ministry did not Tsalhma any new inquiries.

He continued jihad, "The Oil Ministry hopes the representatives of global companies not anticipate things, the release of statements between now and then, because Iraq is sure to a raid of the world" as he put it.

He Jihad that "the gas associated with oil extraction in Iraq, burning since the discovery of crude oil, and worked the oil ministry after the 2003 agreement with Shell and Mitsubishi to end the burning of associated gas in Iraq," adding that "the Ministry of Oil Ataatlko, but slow down, anxious The Iraqi gas, and until you get the best contract for less cost."

The Iraqi Council of Ministers agreed in June last, on the investment to be signed to the imprisonment of the associated gas produced in oil fields in the south near Basra, at a cost of up to $ 12 billion, and the government owns a 51% stake, and the Council is waiting to return the oil ministry to submit a draft agreement, For approval.

The statement by the Prime Minister announced last June, for approving the establishment of Gas Company of Basra with the South Gas Company by 51% and Shell and Mitsubishi 49%, according to the economic model developed by the Oil Ministry on the basis of an agreement of principles signed between the Ministry and Shell for the treatment of associated gas produced from Rumaila, Zubair, West Qurna, Majnoon, signed the agreement in principle to establish the company in September 2008.

The Ministry of Oil that the associated gas that the company will produce it will be allocated primarily for the processing of electric power plants, petrochemical plants, liquefied gas, while the surplus will be sold out.

The Oil Ministry announced earlier that Shell will be the establishment of tanks and everything you need modern industry for the investment of the gas and the training of cadres, at the time showed the Iraqi authorities keen since June 2009, the signing of a series of contract service, which won the international companies to increase production in the Giant oil fields.

http://www.alsumarianews.com/ar/3/12...-details-.html

VP Hashemi to represent Iraq in COMCEC

Iraqi Vice President (VP) Tareq al-Hashemi will travel to Istanbul on Tuesday to represent Iraq in the summit of the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation (COMCEC).

“The VP will be accompanied by a delegation that consists of a number of governors, and representatives of Iraqi ministries and investment commission,” said a presidential statement posted online.

It explained that the summit will start on Oct. 5 and end on the 8th, 2010.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=137590

CBI dollar sales go down to $116m on Wednesday

The Central Bank of Iraq’s (CBI) dollar sales went down to $116.511 million in its daily auction on Wednesday, compared to $163.939 million in the previous session.

“The demand hit $9.660 million in cash, covered at an exchange rate of 1,183 Iraqi dinars per dollar, and $106.851 million in foreign transfers outside the country, covered at an exchange rate of 1,179 Iraqi dinars per dollar,” according to a CBI news bulletin received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=137640

Maliki: No party will affect new government course

Following his visit to Al Fadhila Party headquarters, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki announced that the ministerial seats allocated for Al Sadrist Bloc will be defined according to elections results.

No party will affect the government course or influence security forces, Al Maliki said.

The government will be inclusive, he affirmed.

Al Maliki’s statement came in response to Americans’ concern of the difficulty to deal with Iraqis if Al Sadrists take up an influential role in the government, in state institutions and within security forces.

Iraqi PM stressed on the other that the National Alliance is the largest party by virtue of the Constitution. Al Iraqiya List should therefore negotiate with the National Alliance, he added.

http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Iraq-News...nt-course.html

Hashemi: the adoption of Iraq on the five-year development plan will provide opportunities for promising and profitable investment

Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi said that investment opportunities available in Iraq today are the chances of a promising and profitable in the economic development that took place in Iraq during the past period, especially after the adoption of the five-year development plan . .

And the transfer of the Information Office of the Vice-President in a statement received by the independent press (Iba) a copy of it during his remarks to reporters after arriving in Istanbul to participate in the work of the Conference of the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organization of Islamic Conference - COMCEC - as well as attending the Forum and Exhibition Economic Association of Industrialists and businessmen independent Turkish _ MUSIAD saying we will take a light on the prospects of investment open to investors from the Arab and Islamic world, as we will discuss the investment opportunities existing both in terms of the General Authority for Investment or at the level of the bodies concerned in the governorates in order to convince the Turkish business people and foreigners in greater activity investment in Iraq. .

He Hashemi hoped to increase bilateral trade volume between Turkey and Iraq during the next few days, explaining : the volume of trade between Iraq and Turkey amounted to about $ 6 billion in 2009 and there is a common desire to reach the size of bilateral trade between the two countries to $ 20 billion over the next few years . .

He added: "We need to discourage the Turkish side and open Iraq areas of real work from which to face the challenges that hampered until this moment, investment opportunities and in particular the security file and the administration of investment opportunities in Iraq in addition to the delay in completing the transactions of the investment portfolio."

Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum Achieve Two Years of Production in Kurdistan Region of Iraq

200 million cubic feet per day of current achieved production capacity
72 billion cubic feet of gas and 3.3 million barrels of liquids produced to date
US$850 million investment the largest private-sector project in Iraq today

Dana Gas PJSC, the Middle East's first regional private-sector natural gas company, and its partner and joint operator Crescent Petroleum, the Middle East's oldest private oil and gas company, gave a technical update on the progress of their joint operations on the second anniversary of commencement of production from their major gas project in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which has now reached an overall production and processing capacity of 200 million cubic feet per day, and is fully supplying the fuel needs of the domestic power stations in the Region.

The project partners, who were joined last year by OMV of Austria and MOL of Hungary in the Pearl consortium, have so far invested over US$850 million under contracts signed with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in April 2007, making it the largest energy investment today by any company in Kurdistan and the whole of Iraq. Current gas production ranges from 160 million to 180 million cubic feet per day to meet the prevailing demand of the two gas-fired power stations at Erbil and Chemchemal, with a combined capacity output of 1,250 Megawatts, thereby providing almost continuous electricity to the communities of the Kurdistan Region. In total, over 72 billion cubic feet of gas and 3.3 million barrels of liquids have been produced since the start of production in October 2008, providing billions of dollars of savings in fuel costs for electricity for the Kurdistan Regional Government and the people of Iraq.

During the project implementation, the companies installed a 180km gas pipeline across challenging mountainous terrain that sometimes required the clearing of minefields, and achieved first gas production in a record time of only 16 months for a project of this scale. This included carrying out upstream activities on seismic surveys and production wells, drilling successfully to tertiary reservoir formations at depths of 2,300 metres, and importing and installing the brand new gas processing facilities. Production capacity from the project is currently expected to rise to 300 million cubic feet of gas per day by 2012, as well as 14,000 barrels per day of condensate and 1,000 tonnes per day of liquid petroleum gas (LPG), from new LPG plant currently under commissioning in preparation for start-up later this month.

Marking the second anniversary of gas production in Kurdistan, Mr. Ahmed Al-Arbeed, CEO of Dana Gas, said: "We are very proud of this historical milestone, especially as it has been achieved with the cooperation and support of the KRG, as well as our partners, contractors and local staff. We hope to build on this achievement to grow our projects and enable further progress and prosperity for the local community."

"The investment by the companies is the largest energy investment in Iraq today, and has already delivered tangible benefits for the people of the Kurdistan Region and all of Iraq in terms of enabling electricity supply and fuel cost savings", added Mr. Majid Jafar, Executive Director of Crescent Petroleum and Member of the Board of Dana Gas. "This shows what can be achieved by the private sector, even under difficult circumstances, when the right policies and investment framework are adopted."

During the project's construction phase, work opportunities were provided for over 2,000 Iraqi workers from all ethnic groups and sects, supported by expatriate workers from over 20 nationalities in the region and worldwide. In total over 63,000 tonnes of equipment were imported in over 3,300 truck-loads, with pipe material supplied from China and Thailand, and the state-of-the-art gas processing plant imported from the USA.

The companies are currently implementing a nationalization programme, with currently 65% of operational staff as locals, with targets to reach 80% local staff by 2011 and 90% by 2012. In addition to their investment and work on the project, the companies have also partnered with local charitable foundations to invest in community projects and development, including providing school supplies, drinking water treatment, fuel for generators, mobile medical units, and youth sports facilities, as part of a corporate social responsibility programme.

http://www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZA...on%20of%20Iraq

Assassination attempt against Al Maliki thwarted

A cleaning worker thwarted a major assassination attempt against Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki and a number of security chiefs during a visit to Diyala administration building in summer 2007, Al Qaeda former leader in Diyala Abu Omar Al Azzawi told Alsumaria News.

Al Qaeda was weighed down in the wake of the major security operation launched on May 16, 2007. The joint US-Iraqi operation killed and arrested thousands of Al Qaeda members in Baaquba, Al Azzawi said.

The assassination plot was kind of retaliation, he added.

http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Iraq-News...-thwarted.html

Kirkuk confirm that the share of the petro-dollar project amounted to 300 billion dinars for the months

Kirkuk's provincial council announced that the share of the province of the petro-dollar project amounted to 300 billion Iraqi dinars for the months of this year, stressing at the same time that the draft strategy is being planned to set up to benefit from the allocations of the project including the establishment of the plant to generate electricity.

The deputy chairman of the provincial council Rebwar Talabani in an interview with Alsumaria News, said the Ministry of Finance has informed the administration of the province that the share of the province of the draft petro-dollar ( one dollar for every barrel of oil produced in the province) , he said, adding that " this share will contribute to the implementation of strategic projects contribute to the development of Kirkuk, " According to his opinion.

http://radionawa.com/Ar/NewsDetailN....529&LinkID=155

Tenders for $180m Contract to Overhaul Iraq’s Civil Service

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has outlined proposals in its request for bidders for a $180 million contract to set up civil service laws and regulations, and to create local institutions to deliver services to the population.

The four-year program is called the “Iraq National and Provincial Administrative Reform Project”.

Applications are to be submitted by 4:00 pm (Eastern Standard Time), October 31st, 2010.

http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/201...civil-service/