Iraqi Oil Law "Leaked"

[Slab]

Raed in the Middle

If this has been posted. my apologies.

[neno]

Thursday, March 01, 2007
Final Official Copy of the Iraqi Oil and Gas Law
This final official Arabic copy of the Iraqi hydrocarbon Law (oil and gas law) includes the 4 appendices and the Council of Ministers' resolution. I am working on translating it now, so stay tuned. (arabic readers can download it here)

[update: here is the final and official Iraqi oil and Gas Law translated]

I had a very hard time getting the copy from my contact in the "green zone" to anyone in Baghdad who would then be able to scan it. Everyone who lives inside the greenzone never leaves it, and everyone who lives outside it never goes close to it! I spent hours trying to find a way to transport this copy from the greenzone to Baghdad to no avail. But I finally found a brave soul who was willing to help out.

The Bush administration can add the "Baghdad Wall" surrounding the greenzone to its list of "separation barriers" that it supports.
Posted By Raed Jarrar at 6:16 PM

Comments and Forum Section: CLOSED!
Council of Ministers's resulotion
This is the translation of the latest resolution of the Council of Ministers approving the oil law and submitting it to the Council of Representatives. You can notice that this creates an unconstitutional loophole in article 5, setting May 31st as a deadline for enacting the oil law even of the council of representatives did not approve it.


Council of Ministers

Oil and Energy Committee

Feb 26th, 2007 11:00 AM


[…] the Iraqi government [the council of ministers] submits this law, regulating oil operations, to the Council of Representatives [The Parliament].

[…]

[...], the following arrangements shall be adopted to finalize the regulating of oil and gas operations in Iraq:

<!--[if !supportLists]-->1- <!--[endif]-->This oil and gas law and its four appendices shall be submitted to the Council of Representatives, after agreeing on the types of model contracts and on the general terms and conditions, together with the Financial Revenues Management Law. All parties shall finalize this task before March 15th 2007.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->2- <!--[endif]-->Finalizing the laws of the Iraqi National Oil Company [INOC] and the Ministry of Oil in accordance to this laws articles and regulations. In addition, the Oil and Gas law in Kurdistan region Must be in harmony with the articles and regulations of the federal oil and gas law, ad in accordance to the constitution.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->3- <!--[endif]-->All oil operations and exploration and production rights’ granting shall be put on hold for areas included in article 140 that might have administrative changes for its boarders, except the oil operations related to the INOC that may continue its work in the fields discovered and already developed in accordance to the constitution.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->4- <!--[endif]-->All parties must abstain from signing new contracts agreements related to exploration and production activates in Iraq until this law is fully enacted.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->5- <!--[endif]-->The Federal Government, in coordination with the regions governments, shall finalize the requirements needed to implement this law and activate the entities mentioned in the law in a time period not exceeding the end of May 2007. In case this deadline was not met, the Iraqi Prime Minister shall meet with the president of Kurdistan Region to implement the law within one month and reach out to a solution based on one of the following options:

<!--[if !supportLists]-->a. <!--[endif]-->In case article 5 was not finalized by the deadline of May 31st 2007, the two parties shall have the right to sign Exploration and Production Contracts in accordance to the constitution, this law, and the general principles of contracts’ models (the first option).

<!--[if !supportLists]-->b. <!--[endif]-->Extend the time period mention above.

Posted By Raed Jarrar at 2:30 PM

Comments and Forum Section: CLOSED!
قانون النفط العراقي الجديد
إضغط هنا لتحميل النسخة الرسمية من قانون النفط والغاز، متضمنا الملاحق الأربعة وقرار مجلس الوزراء
Posted By Raed Jarrar at 12:42 PM

Comments and Forum Section: CLOSED!
Monday, February 26, 2007
Google Censorship?
I don't feel very comfortable that one company is controlling all my cyber space! Google controls my email account, calender, blogging account, you-tube, documents and other aspects of my electronic life. I think it's important to hold google accountable for any information censorship.

Less than a month ago, I linked to a youtube clip showing me speaking in the January 27 UFPJ rally. When you try to see the clip now, you get this message: "This video has been removed due to terms of use violation."

First, I thought that Google decided to remove the video because it was a c-span segment because it causes them some copyrights issues, but I was shocked to find other hundreds of c-span segments online, many of them are older, longer, and with a huge number of viewers as well.

Now search for "c-span", you'll get around 400 results (sorted here by number of viewers). The vast majority of the top 20 segments are prank calls, some of them posted more than 7 months ago! The top result, with more than half a million viewers so far, posted more than 2 months ago, shows a crazy caller bashing former president Carter and attacking him for supporting Iran, dictators, thugs, and Islamic terrorists, in addition to calling him "anti-Semite".

Keep in mind that these few hundreds of results don't include clips like this one for example, a c-span segment that doesn't mention the word c-span neither in its title nor in its description. In addition, note that this same method of searching brings around 6,000 results for CNN, around 7,000 for Fox News, and other tens of thousands of clips with different TV logos on them.

It's very interesting how my little 2 minute clip with some few hundreds of viewers was taken down after a couple of weeks of being uploaded, and other very high profile clips with hundreds of thousands of viewers are still up and playing.

Is it a coincidence, or it is selective implementation of google's "terms of use"? Is it possible that the anti-occupation content of my speach was the reason why the clip was censored?

If you are concerned with this issue, you can read youtube's explanation here. They claim that in case they were "notified or otherwise become aware that a particular video uploaded to our site infringes another's copyright, we respond promptly, as the law requires". I think this is an indirect censorship and an abuse of copyrights' laws to implement some people's agendas. Now if you don't like a clip on youtube, based on its content, you can contact them and ask them to remove it because of "copyrights issues". What political maneuvering! what a great way to neutralize the first amendment!

Is it possible that one warmonger was pissed off because of what I said, and he contacted youtube to complain about my clips "copyrights"?

Why don't they change you-tube's name to you-rat!

If you don't think google's explanation is enough, you can drop them a line here. I hope google won't end up being the first cyber-dictator.

Posted By Raed Jarrar at 7:55 PM

Comments and Forum Section: CLOSED!
Thursday, February 22, 2007
British Troops Leaving Iraq: Good Riddance
I was very pleased to hear that Blair finally decided to announce his defeat and put a plan for a complete british withdrawal from Iraq within the next 22 months.

I add my voice to that of the vast majority of Iraqis, three out of four, who are demanding a complete withdrawal of all criminals, mercenaries, troops and anyone who invaded Iraq in 2003 to kill Iraqis and destroy their country.

It is very pleasurable to watch the last allies of bush running away to leave him alone in Iraq. Not only do the Iraqi people want to end the occupation, not only do the U.S. people want to end the occupation, even the little poodles and puppets following the reckless policies of bush want to end the occupation as well.

The british people and their elected government have to remember that they will be held responsible for all the death and destruction they caused in Iraq. Iraq was better before them, and it'll be better off without them. They were never welcomed to invade Iraq and destroy it, and they must compensate Iraqis for the disasters caused by the occupation.

It is time for the bush administration to listen to its own people and congress, it's time for the bush administration to listen to the Iraqi people fighting for their right to live in freedom and Independence. It is time for this corrupt administration to announce its defeat and end all U.S. intervention in Iraq.

I know this sounds more like a speech than a blog, but what the heck!
Posted By Raed Jarrar at 1:27 PM

Comments and Forum Section: CLOSED!
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Sabreen Al-Janabi

Read what Riverbend had to say about the latest story of how US-backed Iraqi security forces abducted Sabrin Al-Janabi, a 20 year old Iraqi woman, from her home and raped her.
Posted By Raed Jarrar at 3:33 PM

Comments and Forum Section: CLOSED!
The Oil Law: Submitted to the Council of Ministers
My contacts in the Iraqi government, in addition to some fellow Iraqi bloggers, confirmed that the oil law draft was submitted to the Council of Ministers last week, and is expected to reach to the Council of Representatives (the Parliament) very soon after it gets approved in the Council of Ministers. The law will be considered active in case it gets approved by the parliament.
Posted By Raed Jarrar at 8:06 AM

Comments and Forum Section: CLOSED!
Sunday, February 18, 2007
The New Iraqi Oil: Leaked
The last few of weeks were very busy. I spent a couple of weeks in Malaysia and South Korea, and I'll share two of my pictures with you below.

But more importantly, I spent the weekend translating this leaked copy of the Iraqi oil law with niki (thank you salam for sending me the link). Translating legal documents can be really hard!

We just finished the translation, and you can download it by clicking here or here

Please feel free to widely distribute this document. It's important to start a stronger debate and to try to educate Iraqis and Americans about this catastrophic law that will facilitate the further looting of Iraqi oil, and will achieve nothing other than increasing the levels of violence and anger in Iraq.

This law legalizes PSAs (production sharing agreements) in Iraq. Iraq will be the only country in the middle east with such contracts privatising Iraqi oil and giving foreign companies crazy rates of profit that may reach to more than three fourth of the general revenue. Iraq and Iraqis need every Dinar that comes from oil sales. In addition to the financial aspects of this law, it can be considered the funding tool for splitting Iraq into three states. It undermines the central government and distributes oil revenues directly to the three regions, which sets the foundations for what Iraq's enemies are trying to achieve in terms of establishing three independent states.

Privatizing Iraq's oil and splitting Iraq into three regions are just two negative features of this 29 pages law. I am translating some important analysis written by Iraqis and other Arabs, and am also working with British and U.S. experts to publish more analysis soon. [UPDATE: click here to download a very important analysis by Mr. Al-Ameer translated by me, click here to to see what the General Union of Oil Employees in Basra think about the new law, and click here to read a related New York Daily News article]

Here are some smiling pictures of me now. the first is in Seoul, and the second in Kuala Lumpur.

[screwball]

Thursday, March 01, 2007
Final Official Copy of the Iraqi Oil and Gas Law
This final official Arabic copy of the Iraqi hydrocarbon Law (oil and gas law) includes the 4 appendices and the Council of Ministers' resolution. I am working on translating it now, so stay tuned. (arabic readers can download it here)

[update: here is the final and official Iraqi oil and Gas Law translated]

I had a very hard time getting the copy from my contact in the "green zone" to anyone in Baghdad who would then be able to scan it. Everyone who lives inside the greenzone never leaves it, and everyone who lives outside it never goes close to it! I spent hours trying to find a way to transport this copy from the greenzone to Baghdad to no avail. But I finally found a brave soul who was willing to help out.

The Bush administration can add the "Baghdad Wall" surrounding the greenzone to its list of "separation barriers" that it supports.
Posted By Raed Jarrar at 6:16 PM

Comments and Forum Section: CLOSED!
Council of Ministers's resulotion
This is the translation of the latest resolution of the Council of Ministers approving the oil law and submitting it to the Council of Representatives. You can notice that this creates an unconstitutional loophole in article 5, setting May 31st as a deadline for enacting the oil law even of the council of representatives did not approve it.


Council of Ministers

Oil and Energy Committee

Feb 26th, 2007 11:00 AM


[…] the Iraqi government [the council of ministers] submits this law, regulating oil operations, to the Council of Representatives [The Parliament].

[…]

[...], the following arrangements shall be adopted to finalize the regulating of oil and gas operations in Iraq:

<!--[if !supportLists]-->1- <!--[endif]-->This oil and gas law and its four appendices shall be submitted to the Council of Representatives, after agreeing on the types of model contracts and on the general terms and conditions, together with the Financial Revenues Management Law. All parties shall finalize this task before March 15th 2007.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->2- <!--[endif]-->Finalizing the laws of the Iraqi National Oil Company [INOC] and the Ministry of Oil in accordance to this laws articles and regulations. In addition, the Oil and Gas law in Kurdistan region Must be in harmony with the articles and regulations of the federal oil and gas law, ad in accordance to the constitution.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->3- <!--[endif]-->All oil operations and exploration and production rights’ granting shall be put on hold for areas included in article 140 that might have administrative changes for its boarders, except the oil operations related to the INOC that may continue its work in the fields discovered and already developed in accordance to the constitution.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->4- <!--[endif]-->All parties must abstain from signing new contracts agreements related to exploration and production activates in Iraq until this law is fully enacted.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->5- <!--[endif]-->The Federal Government, in coordination with the regions governments, shall finalize the requirements needed to implement this law and activate the entities mentioned in the law in a time period not exceeding the end of May 2007. In case this deadline was not met, the Iraqi Prime Minister shall meet with the president of Kurdistan Region to implement the law within one month and reach out to a solution based on one of the following options:

<!--[if !supportLists]-->a. <!--[endif]-->In case article 5 was not finalized by the deadline of May 31st 2007, the two parties shall have the right to sign Exploration and Production Contracts in accordance to the constitution, this law, and the general principles of contracts’ models (the first option).

<!--[if !supportLists]-->b. <!--[endif]-->Extend the time period mention above.

Posted By Raed Jarrar at 2:30 PM

Comments and Forum Section: CLOSED!
قانون النفط العراقي الجديد
إضغط هنا لتحميل النسخة الرسمية من قانون النفط والغاز، متضمنا الملاحق الأربعة وقرار مجلس الوزراء
Posted By Raed Jarrar at 12:42 PM

Comments and Forum Section: CLOSED!
Monday, February 26, 2007
Google Censorship?
I don't feel very comfortable that one company is controlling all my cyber space! Google controls my email account, calender, blogging account, you-tube, documents and other aspects of my electronic life. I think it's important to hold google accountable for any information censorship.

Less than a month ago, I linked to a youtube clip showing me speaking in the January 27 UFPJ rally. When you try to see the clip now, you get this message: "This video has been removed due to terms of use violation."

First, I thought that Google decided to remove the video because it was a c-span segment because it causes them some copyrights issues, but I was shocked to find other hundreds of c-span segments online, many of them are older, longer, and with a huge number of viewers as well.

Now search for "c-span", you'll get around 400 results (sorted here by number of viewers). The vast majority of the top 20 segments are prank calls, some of them posted more than 7 months ago! The top result, with more than half a million viewers so far, posted more than 2 months ago, shows a crazy caller bashing former president Carter and attacking him for supporting Iran, dictators, thugs, and Islamic terrorists, in addition to calling him "anti-Semite".

Keep in mind that these few hundreds of results don't include clips like this one for example, a c-span segment that doesn't mention the word c-span neither in its title nor in its description. In addition, note that this same method of searching brings around 6,000 results for CNN, around 7,000 for Fox News, and other tens of thousands of clips with different TV logos on them.

It's very interesting how my little 2 minute clip with some few hundreds of viewers was taken down after a couple of weeks of being uploaded, and other very high profile clips with hundreds of thousands of viewers are still up and playing.

Is it a coincidence, or it is selective implementation of google's "terms of use"? Is it possible that the anti-occupation content of my speach was the reason why the clip was censored?

If you are concerned with this issue, you can read youtube's explanation here. They claim that in case they were "notified or otherwise become aware that a particular video uploaded to our site infringes another's copyright, we respond promptly, as the law requires". I think this is an indirect censorship and an abuse of copyrights' laws to implement some people's agendas. Now if you don't like a clip on youtube, based on its content, you can contact them and ask them to remove it because of "copyrights issues". What political maneuvering! what a great way to neutralize the first amendment!

Is it possible that one warmonger was pissed off because of what I said, and he contacted youtube to complain about my clips "copyrights"?

Why don't they change you-tube's name to you-rat!

If you don't think google's explanation is enough, you can drop them a line here. I hope google won't end up being the first cyber-dictator.

Posted By Raed Jarrar at 7:55 PM

Comments and Forum Section: CLOSED!
Thursday, February 22, 2007
British Troops Leaving Iraq: Good Riddance
I was very pleased to hear that Blair finally decided to announce his defeat and put a plan for a complete british withdrawal from Iraq within the next 22 months.

I add my voice to that of the vast majority of Iraqis, three out of four, who are demanding a complete withdrawal of all criminals, mercenaries, troops and anyone who invaded Iraq in 2003 to kill Iraqis and destroy their country.

It is very pleasurable to watch the last allies of bush running away to leave him alone in Iraq. Not only do the Iraqi people want to end the occupation, not only do the U.S. people want to end the occupation, even the little poodles and puppets following the reckless policies of bush want to end the occupation as well.

The british people and their elected government have to remember that they will be held responsible for all the death and destruction they caused in Iraq. Iraq was better before them, and it'll be better off without them. They were never welcomed to invade Iraq and destroy it, and they must compensate Iraqis for the disasters caused by the occupation.

It is time for the bush administration to listen to its own people and congress, it's time for the bush administration to listen to the Iraqi people fighting for their right to live in freedom and Independence. It is time for this corrupt administration to announce its defeat and end all U.S. intervention in Iraq.

I know this sounds more like a speech than a blog, but what the heck!
Posted By Raed Jarrar at 1:27 PM

Comments and Forum Section: CLOSED!
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Sabreen Al-Janabi

Read what Riverbend had to say about the latest story of how US-backed Iraqi security forces abducted Sabrin Al-Janabi, a 20 year old Iraqi woman, from her home and raped her.
Posted By Raed Jarrar at 3:33 PM

Comments and Forum Section: CLOSED!
The Oil Law: Submitted to the Council of Ministers
My contacts in the Iraqi government, in addition to some fellow Iraqi bloggers, confirmed that the oil law draft was submitted to the Council of Ministers last week, and is expected to reach to the Council of Representatives (the Parliament) very soon after it gets approved in the Council of Ministers. The law will be considered active in case it gets approved by the parliament.
Posted By Raed Jarrar at 8:06 AM

Comments and Forum Section: CLOSED!
Sunday, February 18, 2007
The New Iraqi Oil: Leaked
The last few of weeks were very busy. I spent a couple of weeks in Malaysia and South Korea, and I'll share two of my pictures with you below.

But more importantly, I spent the weekend translating this leaked copy of the Iraqi oil law with niki (thank you salam for sending me the link). Translating legal documents can be really hard!

We just finished the translation, and you can download it by clicking here or here

Please feel free to widely distribute this document. It's important to start a stronger debate and to try to educate Iraqis and Americans about this catastrophic law that will facilitate the further looting of Iraqi oil, and will achieve nothing other than increasing the levels of violence and anger in Iraq.

This law legalizes PSAs (production sharing agreements) in Iraq. Iraq will be the only country in the middle east with such contracts privatising Iraqi oil and giving foreign companies crazy rates of profit that may reach to more than three fourth of the general revenue. Iraq and Iraqis need every Dinar that comes from oil sales. In addition to the financial aspects of this law, it can be considered the funding tool for splitting Iraq into three states. It undermines the central government and distributes oil revenues directly to the three regions, which sets the foundations for what Iraq's enemies are trying to achieve in terms of establishing three independent states.

Privatizing Iraq's oil and splitting Iraq into three regions are just two negative features of this 29 pages law. I am translating some important analysis written by Iraqis and other Arabs, and am also working with British and U.S. experts to publish more analysis soon. [UPDATE: click here to download a very important analysis by Mr. Al-Ameer translated by me, click here to to see what the General Union of Oil Employees in Basra think about the new law, and click here to read a related New York Daily News article]

Here are some smiling pictures of me now. the first is in Seoul, and the second in Kuala Lumpur.

Thanks Neno! Youre the Man!!!!

[TerryTate]

I'm not sure how much I would trust this guy. He has a definite anti American slant to his political views, so I'd just take it with a grain of salt....

[screwball]

I'm not sure how much I would trust this guy. He has a definite anti American slant to his political views, so I'd just take it with a grain of salt....

which guy??

[neno]

I'm not sure how much I would trust this guy. He has a definite anti American slant to his political views, so I'd just take it with a grain of salt....

thats is why in my title it was stated Opinion also.

[screwball]

thanks NENO!!

[Slab]

A definate anti-American slant. But good information and an interesting perspective in which this event and others are viewed.

[bambiebdgrl]

I'm not sure how much I would trust this guy. He has a definite anti American slant to his political views, so I'd just take it with a grain of salt....

I totally agree-but it did have "opinion" listed at the top. (doesnt hold much for me)
Leann

[Cdn Scrooge]

I find it interesting that the critics of the PSA's concentrate on the 75% aspect only. They fail to point out that the 75-25 sharing is only until their exploration, development and setup costs are recovered. After that, the ratio is 80% to Iraq and 20% to the oil company.

Considering that they tell us it only costs around $1.00 per barrel to pump the oil and it sells for $50.00 per barrel, it certainly would not take very long at 100,000 barrels a day or so to recover all costs. 100,000 x $50.00 = $5 million dollars. PER DAY. So for the majority of the life of these contracts (originally set at 20 years with a 5 yr renewal option) the Iraqi's will have a profit of some $4 million dollars per day. I cannot for the life of me see how this can be detrimental to the Iraqis.

Or am I missing something here.