Iraq Reconstruction News 10 January 2007

Iraq Reconstruction News
10 January 2007


1. Winds of Change Iraq Report, 08 Jan/07. http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/009333.php#more

2. Iraq's Basra port to shut for work. BASRA, Iraq, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Iraq's main oil export terminal will be shut for maintenance for up to four days, further drawing down the tap of a struggling oil sector. http://www.upi.com/Energy/view.php?StoryID=20070109-010000-4252r

3. Iraq Resumes Kirkuk Oil Flow to Ceyhan. www.gulfoilandgas.com 1/2/2007. Iraq resumed pumping Kirkuk crude oil to the Turkish export terminal of Ceyhan Monday after a two-week suspension, an Iraqi oil official said Tuesday. He said some 150,000 barrels were pumped, bringing stocks of Iraqi crude at Ceyhan to 3.65 million bbl.

4. Violence, Curfews Curtailing Services. Washington Post. BAGHDAD -- Noor Ibrahim lay shivering underneath two blankets on a bed at al-Jarrah Hospital. Steps away was a red plastic bassinet. It was empty. A few doors down, her recently born son lay wrapped in a pink blanket. He was a chubby boy of nearly nine pounds with a big patch of black hair. His eyes were closed, his head cocked to the left, his mouth slightly open, his skin soft and pale. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/03/AR2007010301666.html

5. Iraq's academics targeted by militias. BBC. Hundreds of academics, doctors and other specialists have been murdered in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003. Many more are among the thousands of people fleeing the country, adding to the brain drain. BBC Arabic.com asked four Iraqi academics, all based outside Iraq, why they thought they were being targeted, and what could be done to help.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/6224427.stm

6. Extending the licenses of two Kuwaiti mobile companies in Iraq. www.IRAQdirectory.com. http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=2894

7. Reconstructing Iraq: Corruption Hinders Ambitious Engineering. Tens of billions of dollars have flowed into Iraq to boost reconstruction efforts. Although the mainstream media tends to make it seem as though the effort in Iraq is a futile one, the U.S. Army Corps. of Engineers paints a different picture. Let's take a look at some of the setbacks and successes. http://news.thomasnet.com/IMT/archives/2007/01/iraq_reconstruction_corruption_hinders_ambitious_engineering.html

8. Iraq Map Collections at U.S. Library of Congress. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/gmd:@FIELD(SUBJ+@band(+Iraq++))

9. Western companies may get 75% of Iraqi oil profits. DOW JONES NEWSWIRES. Iraq's massive oil reserves may be thrown open for large-scale exploitation by Western oil companies - which could end up grabbing up to 75% of the beleagured nation's oil profits - under a law seen coming before the Iraqi parliament within days, the Independent reported on its Web site Monday. http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/western-companies-may-get-75/story.aspx?guid=%7B09CFDDFD-E299-4659-A8C3-5ADE6E26579E%7D

10. Securing, Stabilizing, and Rebuilding Iraq: Key Issues for Congressional Oversight. GAO-07-308SP, January 9, 2007. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-308SP

11. IWPR Iraq Press Monitor. http://www.iwpr.net/?apc_state=henmicrc-1-1168300800-2-1168387200-3-icr&o=c-1-1168214400-2-1168300800-3-icr&o1=month-1,year-2007&month=1&year=2007 and http://www.iwpr.net/?apc_state=henmicrc-1-1168214400-2-1168300800-3-icr&o=c-1-1168300800-2-1168387200-3-icr&o1=month-1,year-2007&month=1&year=2007

12. Iraqi law 'to favour Western oil companies'. UpstreamOnline.com. A long-awaited Iraqi law covering investment in the country's oil sector will be based on production-sharing agreements (PSAs) favouring Western oil companies, a UK newspaper reported. http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article125824.ece

13. The state of Iraq's security forces. Can Iraq's new army and police forces take over responsibility for security across the country within 15 months, thereby allowing the majority of American combat troops to withdraw? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6168525.stm

14. Brookings Iraq Index 8 January 2007. http://www.brookings.edu/fp/saban/iraq/index.pdf

15. Oil experts discuss report on Iraq draft oil law - TV talkshow. BBC Monitoring.Al-Jazeera Satellite Television at 1830 gmt on 8 January carries a new episode of its "Behind the News Programme", moderated by Muhammad Kurayshan. This episode is devoted to discussing the future of the oil wealth in Iraq in the light of a report published by the British newspaper the Independent on 7 January revealing that a draft law could be passed in Baghdad soon, under which US and British companies would be given the right to exploit the oil reserves of Iraq for 30 years. The guests of the programme are former Iraqi Oil Minister Isam Abd-al-Rahim Chalabi, who speaks via satellite from Amman, and Muhammad Ali Zayni, an expert at the Centre for Global Energy Studies, via satellite from London. Asked if such a law could indeed be issued in the next few days, Chalabi says: "It is impossible for this law to be issued in the manner outlined by the Independent." He adds that the Independent on Sunday's report is "perhaps far from reality". He says that, having followed this issue for a long time, nothing indicates that the report is true. He points out that the Oil Ministry in mid-July 2006 presented a draft oil law, "which is an acceptable formula in many of its aspects". He notes that the draft stipulates establishing a central administration for the oil sector, and not allowing the regions or governorates to undertake direct administration. He says: "What happened is that Kurdistan Region presented a draft, which was very from reality and entailed an illogical explanation of the paragraphs that came in the Iraqi constitution. The draft stipulates giving it [Kurdistan Region] the right to fully administer [the oil sector] from A to Z. Honestly speaking, the Oil Ministry rejected this logic and said it could not agree." Chalabi goes on to say that the Baghdad government and the Kurdish sides have held meetings over the past three months, which produced "some progress". He adds: "What I knew, specifically less than a month ago, through a meeting with a number of officials in charge of the oil file in the government of Kurdistan Region was that they reached a formula which might settle these issues." Asked the same question, Al-Zayni says he did not read the draft law "in its final version". He says: "It seems that the figures mentioned by the paper are high and abnormal, even when compared to what Iraq got, or the contracts Iraq signed under the former regime with other companies in 1997." Told that the draft law falls within the context of the production profit-sharing agreements and that perhaps only the percentages mentioned in the draft are unfair, Al-Zayni says that the draft law, as published, gives the contracted companies 20 per cent of profits, "which is a high percentage, especially if we take into consideration the current oil price hikes". He recalls a contract Iraq signed with the French Total Company, under which the company received 10 per cent of the profits when the price of the oil barrel was 18 dollars. "How can this percentage rise at present, while prices have tripled?" he wonders. Kurayshan tells Al-Zayni that according to the draft law, these companies will get two-thirds of the profits in the first years of production because they are to invest large amounts of money and develop the infrastructure of the oil sector. Commenting, Al-Zayni says: "This is called the cost oil. Through this oil, the company would restore the money it invested in developing an oilfield. Once again, this percentage is high if we compare it with the contracts approved by the former regime. For example, in the case of Total, the percentage was 40 per cent, which is reasonable." Asked why he thinks the report is false, Chalabi says: "The intensive efforts to draft an oil law at this stage is unjustifiable, for the simple reason that no person, be he an Iraqi or a foreigner, can even go to Iraq." He adds: "I do not think that any company can send even one person for talks with Iraq. The Iraqis at present do not need such a law." He says that there are more critical issues that should be addressed, such as the political process and the state of lawlessness. Kurayshan tells Chalabi: "Is it this state of lawlessness that perhaps justifies this unfair percentage? Perhaps the security companies are saying: as long as I am going to take such a risk, I need to secure revenues that justify these expenditures." Commenting, Chalabi says: "I can assure you that there is no world company whatsoever - be it a US or British company, a small or a big company - that is ready to go to Iraq at present. I, therefore, believe that these percentages are totally false, because these percentages vary from one oilfield to another and they depend on the cost of investments." Chalabi notes that a negotiation over the percentages is possible only after an agreement is reached on the exploitation of a certain oilfield. Chalabi corrects Zayni, saying Iraq did not sign a contract with Total, but rather negotiated with the company. He notes that Iraq had signed a contract with the Russian Lukoil, which was cancelled, and another with the Chinese CNPC. He notes that the percentage of the profit in the contract with China "was only 9-10 per cent". He says that the current oil minister, in a visit to China two or three months ago, told the Chinese that the percentage should be renegotiated. Asked if this draft law proves the claim that the Iraqi oil was the goal behind the invasion of Iraq, Al-Zayni says: "This depends on the behaviour of the Iraqi government and officials. The Iraqi officials can preserve the Iraqi oil wealth by giving [companies] rights to develop oilfields under conditions that suit the interest of the country. If there are governments that attach no importance to the interest of the Iraqi people, then this wealth might be in danger." Kurayshan mentions an article by Joseph Samahah in the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, in which he notes that the Baker-Hamilton report suggested the privatization of the oil sector in Iraq and that the members of the Baker commission have links with oil companies. Commenting, Chalabi says that the US politicians talked much and tried to exclude oil "as one of the most important reasons for invading and occupying Iraq". He adds: "Oil was, still is, and will continue for a long time to be one of the most important factors on which US policy is based, not only in Iraq but also in the Middle East region and the Arabian Gulf, because two-thirds of the world's oil reserves exist in this region." Chalabi says that of the 125 oilfields in Iraq, only "around 15 to 18 are being exploited". He notes that what came in the Baker-Hamilton report on the privatization of oil was "rejected by all Iraqi oil experts". Told that the decision to privatize the oil sector is in the end a political decision, Chalabi says that "no government - be it an Iraqi government, an occupation government or a US government - will be allowed to steal the wealth of Iraq". "The Iraqi oil is for the Iraqis," he adds. Al-Zayni says he agrees with Chalabi regarding "the seriousness of the Iraqi people and the patriotism of Iraqi officials concerning preserving Iraq's oil wealth". Asked how Iraq can ensure an "economic independence under conditions that do not allow for a political, security or military independence in the country", Al-Zayni says that there is "widespread corruption", as is obvious in the smuggling of oil and the profits that "many sides" earn "out of this corruption." He adds: "However, I do not think that the corruption would reach the point of agreeing with foreign companies or countries in order to divide oil [shares] or give it [oil] away in an unfair manner." He says that the Iraqi people would oppose such agreements. Source: Al-Jazeera TV, Doha, in Arabic 1830 gmt 8 Jan 07

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