Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Defense Ministry issues shoot-to-kill policy to oil and power guards
Security
(UPI) - The Iraqi Defense Ministry has issued a shoot-to-kill order to helicopter gunners guarding Iraq's vulnerable oil and power infrastructure. Azzaman reports the Ministry of Defense has brought in armed helicopters, possibly Russian, to protect the power and fuel supply to Baghdad. Iraq as a whole suffers from drought of fuels and electricity, and Baghdad is especially targeted by insurgents looking to choke the country's capital. The newspaper reports pilots are to shoot at anyone approaching the oil pipelines or power lines and towers.
Labels: helicopters, oil infrastructure, power, Russia
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Shahristani in Moscow for talks with oil companies
Oil
(The Moscow Times) - Iraq's oil minister arrived in Moscow late Wednesday for talks with Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko and senior oil executives and said he would offer new terms for Russian companies seeking to work in the war-torn country. Officials from a consortium of three Russian companies -- LUKoil, Zarubezhneft and Mashinoimport -- are expected to meet on Thursday with Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani in a bid to regain access to the country's oil fields.
In particular, the companies will be hoping to revive a $4 billion deal to develop the 600,000 barrel-per-day West Qurna field, which was scrapped by dictator Saddam Hussein shortly before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. "Iraq will cooperate with those companies that will propose the best conditions for Iraq, regardless of what countries these companies come from," Shahristani said on his arrival in Moscow, RIA-Novosti reported. Shahristani said no country would get preferential treatment in the competition for Iraqi oil assets. "LUKoil will be competing with other firms on equal terms in accordance with the new oil laws." If LUKoil proposes projects that are competitive enough, it will get the contracts, Shahristani said. LUKoil will likely be hoping to make use of its 20 percent U.S. shareholder, ConocoPhillips, to ease its way back into the country. LUKoil has offered Conoco a 17.5 percent stake in the West Qurna project.
In May, the Iraqi government said it was not prepared to accept a Russian offer to forgive $10 billion in Hussein-era debt in exchange for giving Russian companies access to another major oil field, in Rumaila, Reuters reported. The visit comes as the Iraqi government readies a new law governing foreign investment in the country's oil industry, which has struggled to recover from underinvestment under Hussein and disruption by terrorist attacks under the U.S.-led occupation.
Semakov said LUKoil would create some 2,000 jobs for Iraqis in one field at West Qurna alone. The company has invested "tens of millions of dollars" in the project but would plow in much more in the future, he said.As the invasion of Iraq began, the Russian firms had to abandon their projects and evacuate staff.
Labels: ConocoPhillips, Hussain al-Shahristani, LUKoil, Mashinoimport, Rumaila field, Russia, Viktor Khristenko, West Qurna, Zarubezhneft
Friday, August 03, 2007
UNSC Iraq resolution may be approved soon
U.N.
(Al Jazeera) - A draft UN Security Council resolution to expand the world body's mandate in Iraq is expected to be approved soon. The draft sponsored by the US and Britain will give the UN scope to help promote political reconciliation, settle disputed internal boundaries, and plan for a national census. "I think it will get voted early next week," Emyr Jones Parry, Britain's ambassador to the UN, said. "There's no problem on it - it's straight forward."
Britain circulated the resolution to the other Security Council members on Wednesday and council experts went over the text. The experts were expected to meet again on Friday. Russia signalled its assent on Thursday, making approval by the Security Council almost certain. Vitaly Churkin, Russia's UN ambassador, said on Thursday that "it's overall a good draft ... I don't see any basic problems."
Britain circulated the resolution to the other Security Council members on Wednesday and council experts went over the text. The experts were expected to meet again on Friday. Russia signalled its assent on Thursday, making approval by the Security Council almost certain. Vitaly Churkin, Russia's UN ambassador, said on Thursday that "it's overall a good draft ... I don't see any basic problems."
The UN secretary-general has been under pressure from the US to expand the world body's role in Iraq. Ban Ki-moon said in June he would consider it, but said deteriorating security in Iraq was an obstacle. The small UN Mission in Iraq has helped to organise elections, promote a national dialogue, and develop institutions for representative government. Its current mandate expires next Friday.
The draft would extend the mission's mandate for a year and authorise it to help organise reintegration programmes for former combatants, assist the return of refugees and displaced people, and promote economic reform and the development of an effective civil service and social services for the Iraqi people.
It would also be asked to promote human rights and judicial and legal reforms "in order to strengthen the rule of law" and to assist the government "on initial planning for a comprehensive census". Kofi Annan, the former secretary-general, pulled all UN international staff out of Iraq in October 2003 after a spate of attacks on humanitarian workers and two bombings at UN headquarters in Baghdad killed dozens, including the top UN envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
In August 2004, Annan allowed a small U.N. contingent to return to Baghdad and imposed a ceiling of 35 international workers, which has steadily increased but remains relatively low because of the security situation.
The new mandate, if approved, would come as the situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate. Besides daily violence, residents in Baghdad have had their taps run dry at the height of summer when temperatures are close to 50 degrees celsius. Residents and city officials said on Thursday that large sections in the west of the capital had been virtually dry for six days because the already strained electricity grid could not provide sufficient power to run water purification and pumping stations.
The problem highlights the larger difficulties in a capital beset by violence, crumbling infrastructure, rampant crime and too little electricity to keep cool in the sweltering weather more than four years after the US-led invasion.
The draft would extend the mission's mandate for a year and authorise it to help organise reintegration programmes for former combatants, assist the return of refugees and displaced people, and promote economic reform and the development of an effective civil service and social services for the Iraqi people.
It would also be asked to promote human rights and judicial and legal reforms "in order to strengthen the rule of law" and to assist the government "on initial planning for a comprehensive census". Kofi Annan, the former secretary-general, pulled all UN international staff out of Iraq in October 2003 after a spate of attacks on humanitarian workers and two bombings at UN headquarters in Baghdad killed dozens, including the top UN envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
In August 2004, Annan allowed a small U.N. contingent to return to Baghdad and imposed a ceiling of 35 international workers, which has steadily increased but remains relatively low because of the security situation.
The new mandate, if approved, would come as the situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate. Besides daily violence, residents in Baghdad have had their taps run dry at the height of summer when temperatures are close to 50 degrees celsius. Residents and city officials said on Thursday that large sections in the west of the capital had been virtually dry for six days because the already strained electricity grid could not provide sufficient power to run water purification and pumping stations.
The problem highlights the larger difficulties in a capital beset by violence, crumbling infrastructure, rampant crime and too little electricity to keep cool in the sweltering weather more than four years after the US-led invasion.
Labels: draft resolution, electricity, Emyr Jones Parry, Russia, UNAMI, UNSC, water
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Iraq wins some debt relief at Sharm el-Sheikh
Conference
(Reuters) - Iraq won a trickle of debt relief pledges at a big international conference in Egypt on Thursday and the United States prepared for the highest-level contact with Syria in more than two years. Egypt and three East European countries agreed to waive debts owed by Iraq as part of an International Compact to support Iraqi institutions in exchange for political and economic reforms by the Baghdad government.
The first day of the two-day conference in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh is dedicated to the International Compact, a five-year plan to restore stability and economic prosperity through national reconciliation. But much of the attention is on whether the United States will abandon its longstanding reluctance to hold high-level talks with the Iranian and Syrian governments, as recommended by the Baker-Hamilton commission on Iraq last year.
In his opening speech to the two days of meetings in Egypt, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki appealed for debt relief. "We call on everybody participating in this conference to write off the accumulated debts of Iraq," he said. Iraq sits on the world's third-largest proven crude oil reserves but is struggling to rebuild after four years of war.
Iraqi Finance Minister Bayan Jabor said the three Eastern European countries -- Slovenia, Bulgaria and Poland -- would agree to forgive 80 percent of Iraqi debt but did not say how much that would be. He said the European Union would grant Iraq $200 million, and he expected grants from some Asian countries as well. But James Dobbins, an analysts at the RAND Corporation, said debt relief was of secondary importance because the Iraqis are not paying off the money they owed anyway.
"It is a purely paper transaction. It's symbolic but it doesn't have any immediate effect," he said. Jabor said that Iraq had rejected as unacceptable an offer from Russia to forgive the debt it is owed by Baghdad in return for access to a major Iraqi oilfield. "The Russians are hesitant. They want investment in the Rumaila oilfield in return for eliminating the debt," he said. When Saudi Arabia announced last month that it was writing off 80 percent of the more than $15 billion it was owed by Iraq, Jabor estimated his country's debt at $140 billion.
The first day of the two-day conference in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh is dedicated to the International Compact, a five-year plan to restore stability and economic prosperity through national reconciliation. But much of the attention is on whether the United States will abandon its longstanding reluctance to hold high-level talks with the Iranian and Syrian governments, as recommended by the Baker-Hamilton commission on Iraq last year.
In his opening speech to the two days of meetings in Egypt, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki appealed for debt relief. "We call on everybody participating in this conference to write off the accumulated debts of Iraq," he said. Iraq sits on the world's third-largest proven crude oil reserves but is struggling to rebuild after four years of war.
Iraqi Finance Minister Bayan Jabor said the three Eastern European countries -- Slovenia, Bulgaria and Poland -- would agree to forgive 80 percent of Iraqi debt but did not say how much that would be. He said the European Union would grant Iraq $200 million, and he expected grants from some Asian countries as well. But James Dobbins, an analysts at the RAND Corporation, said debt relief was of secondary importance because the Iraqis are not paying off the money they owed anyway.
"It is a purely paper transaction. It's symbolic but it doesn't have any immediate effect," he said. Jabor said that Iraq had rejected as unacceptable an offer from Russia to forgive the debt it is owed by Baghdad in return for access to a major Iraqi oilfield. "The Russians are hesitant. They want investment in the Rumaila oilfield in return for eliminating the debt," he said. When Saudi Arabia announced last month that it was writing off 80 percent of the more than $15 billion it was owed by Iraq, Jabor estimated his country's debt at $140 billion.
Labels: Bayan Jabor, Bulgaria, debt relief, Egypt, International Compact with Iraq, Poland, Rumaila field, Russia, Sharm al-Sheikh Conference, Slovenia
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Russian oil company enters into partnership with Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Oil, Business
(Iraq Directory) - LUK-Oil company, the largest oil producer in Russia, entered a partnership agreement with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday, and said that it depends on its support in preparing for the rehabilitation of a giant oil deal in Iraq. LUK-Oil and the ministry said in a statement that the agreement is the first of its kind in Russia, and it aims to support LUK-Oil projects abroad and defend the interests of the company through diplomatic means and facilitate meetings of the company abroad.
In its turn, LUK-Oil would consult with the ministry in energy-related issues. The Russian news agency Interfax reported that head of the company, Wajid Ali Kabeerov, said at the signing ceremony which foreign media journalists were prevented from from attending, "our company is entering new areas which do not enjoy political stability. We will need the support of the ministry in Iraq, particularly".
The head of the company said last month that his company is optimistic about the prospects for reviving a deal since the era of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to develop the giant Iraqi field of West Qurna after the government approved the new Iraqi oil law. The deal, worth four billion dollars, to develop the West Qurna field may face problems due to its cancellation by the government of Saddam just before his overthrown in 2003.
However, the new oil law still needs to be approved by the Iraqi Parliament, which aims to establish the general framework of the work of foreign companies that invest in Iraq after decades of sanctions in the era of Saddam and the years of violence since the invasion, led by the United States.
Labels: Ahdab oil field, LUKoil, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Russia, Wajid Ali Kabeerov, West Qurna
Monday, March 19, 2007
Russia worried about being frozen out of Iraqi oil deals
Oil, Business
(Reuters) - Russia, worried its firms may be frozen out of oil deals in Iraq, said on Monday it hoped a draft law regulating how Iraq's oil wealth is distributed will ensure Russian companies do not suffer discrimination. Moscow opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. It is concerned that when the Iraqi government starts handing out new concessions, Russian companies will lose out to firms from countries that backed the military operation.
The draft law, which was approved by Iraq's cabinet last month and now awaits approval by parliament, is seen as a key step to opening up Iraq -- home to the world's third largest oil reserves -- to foreign investment.
"The Russian side noted the importance of the adoption of an Iraqi law on hydrocarbons which correspondents to international standards," Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement.
"(Russia) expressed the hope that it (the law) will allow non-discriminatory access for companies from a variety of countries, including Russian firms, to the Iraqi oil and gas market, and underlined the readiness of Russian companies to participate in rebuilding Iraq's economy." Russian companies, led by oil major, signed deals to develop Iraqi reserves with the former administration under Saddam Hussein. These have been on hold since the invasion.
The draft law, which was approved by Iraq's cabinet last month and now awaits approval by parliament, is seen as a key step to opening up Iraq -- home to the world's third largest oil reserves -- to foreign investment.
"The Russian side noted the importance of the adoption of an Iraqi law on hydrocarbons which correspondents to international standards," Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement.
"(Russia) expressed the hope that it (the law) will allow non-discriminatory access for companies from a variety of countries, including Russian firms, to the Iraqi oil and gas market, and underlined the readiness of Russian companies to participate in rebuilding Iraq's economy." Russian companies, led by oil major, signed deals to develop Iraqi reserves with the former administration under Saddam Hussein. These have been on hold since the invasion.
Labels: draft oil law, natural gas, oil deals, Russia
