http://news.monstersandcritics.com/energywatch/oilandgas/features/article_1352358.php/Oil_security_for_Iraq_investors

Oil, security for Iraq investors

By Ben Lando Sep 6, 2007, 0:44 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (UPI) -- Security in Iraq is a major holdup to investment there, sometimes second only to the lack of a law governing Iraq`s vast oil and gas reserves.

Various security plans, by Iraqi and U.S. forces, are intended to break the cycle of violence, but little of the ambitions for Iraq`s future will take hold until its citizens face fewer day-to-day threats to their lives.

Inter- and intra-sectarian violence as well as anti-occupation attacks and the multi-national force`s response keep Iraq`s morgues full, people afraid and development of vital services at bay. Iraqis face both poverty and unemployment estimated at more than 50 percent, and a simultaneous crisis lacking security, fuels, electricity, healthcare, clean water and education, though these vary by region.

The energy sector, which is the bloodline for Iraq`s economy, is a frequent target.

Many top executives at an Iraq energy conference this week alternately ranked the security situation and the oil law as the top reasons they aren`t rushing into the country to invest. Most spoke off the record to United Press International, but shared similar concerns.

'What is the main issue to me, as long as security problem is there, it is very difficult to get service companies to Iraq,' said Orhan Duran, general manager of Genel Enerji, a Turkish firm. Genel and Canada`s Addax Petroleum formed the Taq Taq Operating Co. to operate a field in the Iraqi Kurdish region, which is relatively safe and semi-autonomous from Baghdad.

Both will be needed for the benefit of investors and Iraqis: the oil law to outline investment guidelines for foreign and private firms; security to ensure a lower risk premium in contracts.

'Of course, the cost is higher than normal countries, because of the security,' Duran said, estimating Iraq`s deals to be two to three times higher than if it were more stable.

'We are afraid of the present status,' said a top official of a major Japanese firm at the Iraq Oil, Gas, Petrochemical and Electricity Summit organized by the London-based Iraq Development Program. 'After improvement of security, we can move.'

There`s no consensus in government on what is more of a roadblock to entering Iraq`s market.

'No doubt, the security situation is a fundamental part of the development process, whether the oil sector or the other sectors,' said Ibrahim Bahrul-Uloom, a former oil minister who held the post twice since 2003. 'We think politics and economic and security are connected together, even thought we made progress in the political process.'

The oil law is stuck between various factions who either want a heavy central control or strong regional and governorate rights and either extremely limited foreign investment or the unbridled free market.

It`s now up to Parliament to pass the law, though it has yet to receive a finished draft, but leaders of various sides in the highest parts of government agreed to move the law forward. Parliament resumed session Tuesday after an August recess. It didn`t take up the law.

'We feel the security for the oil industry is not a crucial issue. The legislation framework is the most important,' said Ali al-Dabbagh, top spokesman for the government. Though he said the energy infrastructure could be protected, by stepped up efforts from both Iraq and multi-national forces, he warned against U.S. troop reductions to fight the 'devil enemies.'

A sizeable amount of Iraq`s violence is between Sunnis and Shiites, and among rival Shiite factions. Others, both Iraqi and non-Iraqi, are fighting against the U.S. occupation or the Iraqi government by targeting high-value energy infrastructure.

Attacks on Iraq`s oil and electricity sector from April 2003 through the third week of August have been rampant and ongoing, according to an expert in threats and vulnerability to the energy sector worldwide who spoke on condition of anonymity. An official with an Iraqi ministry focused on protecting energy infrastructure says that trend will turn around.

The expert`s data includes attacks on more than 800 workers and more than 1,000 attacks on infrastructure such as pipelines, oil fields and wells, refineries and tankers, power lines and towers, power stations and substations. The expert cautioned that all the data rely on what is actually reported, assuredly lower than the number of actual attacks.

Iraq recently repaired and turned back on the pipeline from Kirkuk in the north to Turkey`s Mediterranean Sea port of Ceyhan. The second-most important pipeline in the country, it has been largely useless since the war began because of attacks.

'All pipelines throughout Iraq are vulnerable to attack, however the levels of attacks reduced recently due to the security measures,' said Issa Jaffar Jabir, director general of the Ministry of National Security Affairs.

The ministry operates the Oil Protection Force and uses special Iraqi troops, and Jabir said soon the Iraqi air force would contribute to protecting the energy infrastructure. He wouldn`t say how members protect the infrastructure.

He said he won`t be able to have 'a security vision for the country' until the oil law is approved.

Iraq`s oil exports brought in more than 93 percent of the federal budget last year, an amount that would increase if the government`s long-term plans to revamp the various energy sectors, as well as other industries, fall in line. Iraq estimates the hydrocarbons and electricity sectors need nearly $80 billion in investment through 2016.

Industry Minister Hariri, speaking to reporters in Dubai hours before a flight to Washington, said other industries could deliver up to 20 percent of the country`s gross domestic product. That means the energy sector grows as robust as the oil and gas reserves could allow it to; private companies, domestic and foreign, start investing; and the country becomes safer, he said.

'I don`t actually blame the companies for not wanting `either risk my own investment or risk my people.` For people who are looking at it from outside, it looks gloomy. Me from the inside I can see a different picture to the situation. There are large pockets of the country where the environment is safe where potential workers or companies can actually do work.'

He points to the economic development in Iraqi Kurdistan, a potential gateway into the rest of Iraq, perhaps employing Iraqis, who would be safer than foreigners right now.

'In the long term Iraq will be the next land for investment,' he said. 'There will not be another part of this planet that provides so much promise and so many opportunities with quick, great return as Iraq will.'

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1659702,00.html

Petro Showdown

Thursday, Sep. 06, 2007 By VIVIENNE WALT

April 2003: Saddam Hussein is on the run, and the sky over Baghdad is choked with black smoke as looters ransack and torch government buildings. But in one district, U.S. Marines stand guard on the steps of a large modern building, their weapons trained on the street and the footbridge outside. It is the Ministry of Oil. Let this treasure chest burn, the thinking goes, and Iraq goes with it.

Through more than four years of catastrophic violence in Baghdad, the building has survived intact. But a far quieter battle now rages inside its walls, one that could ultimately prove as critical to Iraq's future as the war: how to reorganize the country's mammoth oil industry after nearly 25 years of Saddam's dictatorship, international sanctions and bloody conflict. Oil revenues, which are potentially worth $70 billion a year--virtually all of Iraq's export earnings--are desperately needed to rebuild the shattered economy and end its overwhelming dependence on Washington. And oil companies from ExxonMobil to China National Petroleum Corp. are elbowing for position.

With stakes this high, Iraqi politicians have fought bitterly for more than a year over a new "hydrocarbon law," drafted last summer by veterans of Iraq's oil industry. The legislation is up for a vote in parliament when the fractious government resumes work after a bloody summer. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has vowed to pass the law after delaying the vote twice this year; he is under intense pressure from President George W. Bush to produce results, as support for his leadership withers at home and in Washington. The vote is scheduled to take place just as Congress receives a progress report by the U.S. military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus. If the fractiousness continues, however, well-armed regional powers could assert control over the wealth under their turf, adding economic momentum to a national bust-up.

U.S. officials have frequently cited the oil law as a key marker of progress, essential for building Iraq's future--and so setting a date for U.S. withdrawal. Without it, oil companies are unlikely to plow in the billions of exploration dollars Iraq needs because they will not be certain of the financial terms. "There is an enormous amount of pressure to get this law passed," says Alex Munton, a research analyst for Wood Mackenzie, a global energy consultancy based in Edinburgh. "Big oil companies are looking firstly for legal security before they consider venturing into Iraq--even leaving aside the violence."

Iraqi officials estimate it will cost about $20 billion and take five years to repair and modernize the industry, whose infrastructure had been rotting for decades because of international sanctions and Saddam's mismanagement. Insurgents have been attacking oil pipelines since 2003. A key northern line that leads to the export terminal in Ceyhan, Turkey, has lain idle for months since it was blown up. The industry also faces skills shortages. Years of suicide attacks and kidnappings have drained the country of its oil engineers, who have fled.

Still, Iraq has 115 billion bbl. of proven reserves and produces nearly 2 million bbl. daily, mainly from the Basra area in the south and Kirkuk and Kurdistan in the north. That's a sharp drop from about 2.8 million bbl. a day before the U.S. invasion in 2003 and an even steeper decline from a peak of about 3.7 million bbl. before the 1980 war with Iran. (From 100,000 to 300,000 bbl. a day are lost to smugglers.) The law would allow oil companies to explore hundreds of new oil fields under 10-year agreements and then 20-year production contracts in partnership with the government. Crucially, after paying a 12.5% royalty, foreign companies could export oil they find.

In drafting the law, officials had to tread carefully on explosive ethnic divisions. After decades in which Saddam barred Kurds from drilling in the resource-rich north, Kurdish officials suspected that the Shi'ite-dominated government in Baghdad would try to seize control of their resource. So the new law would let regional governments negotiate directly with foreign firms. Each contract would need approval from a new Baghdad-based Federal Oil and Gas Council, in which each ethnic group will be represented. The council has 60 days to challenge a contract and send its objections to arbitration. A separate revenue-sharing law aims to carve up billions of dollars in profits among each region--in proportion to its population.

By last February, that patchwork of compromises looked strong enough to win in parliament. Iraq's Cabinet approved the draft, and Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani promised U.S. officials that the law would be in place by the end of May. But months later, that confidence--and the deadline--has evaporated. Fierce arguments have raged over how much control Baghdad and the Iraq National Oil Co. should have over production. Oil workers' unions argue that the law gives Big Oil huge profits while potentially undercutting the interests of Iraqis. The major union staged a demonstration in July in Basra, calling for the law to be killed. Union leaders will convene a conference in Basra in early September to draft alternatives to privatizing the industry.

Exasperated by the delays, Kurdistan's powerful regional government--which had agreed to the law last February--simply passed its own legislation. It offers model contracts for oil firms, and the regional government's website has details of Kurdistan's oil blocks. Kurdistan has already signed five contracts and begun production.

The Kurds have greatly complicated al-Maliki's ability to pass national legislation and deepened a sense of crisis. "The government's credibility is at its lowest, and that makes things very, very difficult," says Tariq Shafiq, one of the authors of the bill and director of Petrolog & Associates, an oil consultancy in London. He believes the vote should be shelved until the violence subsides and the government is more stable. Many parliamentarians--most of whom spend months of the year outside war-torn Iraq--agree. Says Saleh al-Mutlaq, head of the National Dialogue Front party, which has 11 seats: "Even if it passes, companies will not have a good environment to work in. There will be strikes. There will be violence." His delegates intend to reject the law.

Yet, amazingly, oil companies are already engaged in a scramble for contracts, despite lethal risks and widespread kidnappings of foreign contractors. While no company will begin real work before the law is passed, several have positioned themselves to start immediately after. Iraqi oil officials and Western execs are gathering at a conference in Dubai early this month to thrash out plans. Chevron and Total have signed a joint agreement to explore and develop Iraq's fourth-largest oil field, Majnoon, near the Iran border. In a similar arrangement, Royal Dutch Shell and the Australian company BHP Billiton are studying another big oil field, Halfaya, in Missan province. Shell is also considering developing vast untapped gas deposits, while China's National Petroleum Corp. has won an agreement to produce oil in the Ahdab field, also in the Shi'ite-dominated south.

Although experts like Shafiq advise against exploring while war rages, the temptations for oil companies to jump in are strong. Since contracts last decades, executives believe they might otherwise be left behind if and when the war ends. In recent months, the urge to get into the game has grown stronger. Back in April, the Colorado energy consultancy IHS estimated Iraq's oil reserves at about double the widely accepted figures--about 200 billion bbl., rather than 115 billion bbl. IHS's stunning finding would give Iraq huge clout in the global oil industry, making it second in reserves only to Saudi Arabia and ahead of Iran.

The hunger among executives and Western governments for a new oil law could backfire, however. As Iraqis see companies sign deals, they say they sense the law is being hurried to suit Western interests. "Politicians who sign it will be consigning their careers to the dustbin," says Kamil Mahdi, an Iraqi oil specialist and senior lecturer in Middle East economics at Exeter University in Britain, who, like Shafiq, has argued that the law should be postponed until war wanes. But to government officials--facing a bankrupt Iraq entirely dependent on U.S. funds--that option seems untenable. "We cannot wait," says Thamir Ghadhban, Iraq's former Oil Minister, who is now the oil adviser to Prime Minister al-Maliki. "We need this." With potential windfalls of $70 billion a year, bloodshed and bombings might not be enough to hold back the oil stampede much longer.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/ny-woiraq0908,0,4374882.story?coll=ny_home_rail_headlines

WASHINGTON - Just in time for next week's Bush administration report to Congress on Iraq, most of the top leadership council in Iraq has reached a breakthrough agreement on a new oil law -- the thorniest of the political issues blocking political compromise in that cauldron of a country................

Iraq leaders broker oil deal days before U.S. report
BY TIMOTHY M. PHELPS | timothy.phelps@newsday.com
5:30 PM EDT, September 7, 2007

WASHINGTON - Just in time for next week's Bush administration report to Congress on Iraq, most of the top leadership council in Iraq has reached a breakthrough agreement on a new oil law -- the thorniest of the political issues blocking political compromise in that cauldron of a country.

A Kurdish official predicted Friday to Newsday that if a final agreement can be announced to coincide with Army Gen. David Petraeus' testimony to Congress on Monday, it would be a major boon to President George W. Bush's argument that progress is being made in Iraq.

In recent days, Democrats in Congress have focused on the lack of political progress to counter Bush's claims that military progress is being made on the ground.

It was not clear Friday whether Iraqi Sunnis had approved the agreement yet, but it has been the Kurds -- not the Sunnis -- who have blocked progress. The Sunnis, who have little or no proven oil deposits in their region of Iraq, have long argued for central control of Iraq's oil and equitable distribution of the revenues by population.

Without it, experts on the region say, the country is likely to break apart.

According to one Middle Eastern source, the agreement would allow centralized control of the oil by the government in return for a larger share of the profits for the Kurds than originally proposed. Significantly, the agreement would cover future discoveries of oil deposits in addition to known oil fields, contrary to the vague provisions in the Iraqi constitution that seemed to leave such oil totally to the regions.

The Kurdish official confirmed the agreement, but said it calls for the central government and the regions to set policy together. Under the agreement, a federal council -- with both regional and federal government membership -- would be in charge of all the oil and gas in Iraq, he said.

Kurdish leaders had wanted Kurdish oil fields to be totally under their control. The Kurdish official, who asked not to be identified but was involved in the discussions, said Kurdistan, in northern Iraq, would continue to control contracts for oil exploration in their region, a major sticking point, but in coordination with the new council and its policies. The main point, the official said, is that "the center \[Baghdad\] cannot prohibit development in the North," as it did in the days of Saddam Hussein.

The deal was hammered out in recent days between the leaders of the two main Kurdish factions and two main Shia factions, with the Sunnis, who have been boycotting the government, not yet represented.


PETREL RESOURCES
Technical and Business Partners
Petrel has a strategic partnership and cooperation agreement with ITOCHU Corporation (ITOCHU). ITOCHU is one of the largest and most respected Japanese conglomerates, one of the largest traders of crude oil in the Far East and is a major force in numerous business sectors, including steel pipe supply, finance, logistic and plant businesses. The cooperation agreement between Petrel and ITOCHU focuses on Iraq and initially covered work on the Merjan oil field under a Technical Cooperation Agreement with the Iraqi Ministry of Oil. Under the agreement ITOCHU will also have a first look at future Petrel projects in the Iraqi oil & gas upstream sector.

In December 2005 Petrel also established a joint venture with a major Iraqi group, Makman, to develop the Subba and Luhais project. Together we have established structures and responsibilities within the Joint Venture Company. We have mobilised personnel to the Project offices in Baghdad, London, Italy and Istanbul with further support from our own corporate office and Makmans office in Erbil, northern Iraq. Our Iraqi partner brings both local contacts and experience. Makman involvement in two other oil field projects in Iraq has provided them with a learning experience that we are able to benefit from.

Petrel has a 10 year established relationship with ODR, a Project Management group based in London, who have an experienced team of technical and project services personnel to assist in our evaluation, implementation and operation of our assets. This group provides a wider link to specific areas of technical expertise and financial control and planning.

We have an exclusive license for Gas to Liquids (GTL) and Coal to Liquids (CTL) technology with Energy Technology Partners, a US firm that has developed a unique technology for commercializing gas and coal reserves. Petrel also works closely with the Geosciences department of Trinity College in Dublin and Fugro (UK), a leading Geotechnical consulting firm. The group regularly uses top experts in specific disciplines worldwide on a non-exclusive consulting basis. In some cases these relationships go back over decades.

Todays date is 8 September 2007! Monday 10 September 2007 previously highlighted as an important date.Link below post-dated 10 September 2007.How significant & co-incidental time will tell.


Iraq Gears Up For Licensing Bid Round As MPs Prepare To Debate Draft Oil Law

10 September 2007
Volume 50, Issue 37 - TOP STORIES

Iraqi oil officials have started preparatory work on identifying oil fields and gathering field data ahead of an upstream licensing round that will be launched soon after the approval of the much-delayed draft oil law. While this key package of legislation remains to be debated and adopted by the federal parliament and there is plenty of evidence to suggest it will receive close scrutiny a new sense of pragmatic optimism from Iraqi officials and their potential international partners was apparent at the Iraq Development Program-sponsored Iraq Oil, Gas Petrochemical and Electricity Summit, which started on 2 September in Dubai. Despite significant political differences among Iraqs federal government partners, divisions that have held up progress on the law, senior officials are now striking a more positive tone ahead of the presentation of the law to MPs, as Bill Farren-Price reports.

fULL ARTICLE
http://www.zawya.com/mees/story.cfm?id=v50n37-1TS01

UPDATE 1-Iraq to issue oil tenders with or without new law
Sat Sep 8, 2007 4:40PM BST

Email this Article |Print this Article | Reprints
[-] Text [+] (Recasts adding quotes, background)

By John Irish

DUBAI, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Iraq will issue tenders for international oil companies to develop its existing fields this year, even if a long-awaited new law to regulate the energy sector is delayed, Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said.

"Although we have been waiting for this new law for political reasons, if it is delayed we will go ahead and start discussions with IOCs, especially in current fields to increase production levels," he told an oil conference in Dubai on Saturday.

"There is no legislation vacuum. There is a prevailing law, which authorises us to carry out any field development contract. This we will be pursuing and you will see shortly the tendering calling for IOCs to work with us to develop current fields in addition to a gas masterplan," he said.

Asked how soon the tenders would be issued, Shahristani said "well before the end of the year."

Shahristani said last month that Iraq would call an open race for around a third of Iraq's prized fields in September, but only once the new federal oil law was passed.

Now it seems the tenders will be issued with or without the new law, which will decide how Iraq's third-largest proven oil reserves will be shared out and has been mired in political bickering.

A draft bill was approved by the Iraqi government in July after months of talks but has yet to be debated by parliament, which returned this month from its summer break. Continued...

UPDATE 1-Iraq to issue oil tenders with or without new law
Sat Sep 8, 2007 4:40PM BST

Email this Article |Print this Article | Reprints
[-] Text [+] Shahristani reiterated comments by other Iraqi officials that the oil law should be passed "within a few weeks", but many disagreements over the details persist.

The Kurdistan Regional Government has already forced the renegotiation of the bill and international oil executives privately say they are wary about entering Iraq before the new legal framework for the energy sector, which provides over 90 percent of Iraqi government revenue, is in place.

Shahristani said the delay in the law would not delay plans to develop the sector, which is in dire need of investment after a decade of sanctions and four years of violence since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003.

"Iraq has an oil law. It has always had one and it is the prevailing law until the new one is legislated. The ministry of oil can sign any contract to develop capacity and increase oil production," he said.

"This is needed for the reconstruction."

all of which highlights that there is still a very very long way to travel before anyone will dare to start working and exploring there in earnest

14CHWAY - 9 Sep'07 - 07:47 - 1978 of 1985


We will get there with PET,one way or another.


Iraq to issue oil tenders with or without new law
Baghdad: 58 minutes ago
Iraq will issue tenders for international oil companies to develop its existing fields this year, even if a long-awaited new law to regulate the energy sector is delayed, Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said.

"Although we have been waiting for this new law for political reasons, if it is delayed we will go ahead and start discussions with IOCs, especially in current fields to increase production levels," he told an oil conference in Dubai on Saturday.

"There is no legislation vacuum. There is a prevailing law, which authorises us to carry out any field development contract. This we will be pursuing and you will see shortly the tendering calling for IOCs to work with us to develop current fields in addition to a gas masterplan," he said.

Asked how soon the tenders would be issued, Shahristani said "well before the end of the year."

Shahristani said last month that Iraq would call an open race for around a third of Iraq's prized fields in September, but only once the new federal oil law was passed.

Now it seems the tenders will be issued with or without the new law, which will decide how Iraq's third-largest proven oil reserves will be shared out and has been mired in political bickering.

A draft bill was approved by the Iraqi government in July after months of talks but has yet to be debated by parliament, which returned this month from its summer break.

Shahristani reiterated comments by other Iraqi officials that the oil law should be passed "within a few weeks", but many disagreements over the details persist.

The Kurdistan Regional Government has already forced the renegotiation of the bill and international oil executives privately say they are wary about entering Iraq before the new legal framework for the energy sector, which provides over 90 percent of Iraqi government revenue, is in place.

Shahristani said the delay in the law would not delay plans to develop the sector, which is in dire need of investment after a decade of sanctions and four years of violence since the US-led invasion of 2003.

"Iraq has an oil law. It has always had one and it is the prevailing law until the new one is legislated. The ministry of oil can sign any contract to develop capacity

Here is today's agenda.
Conference now under way.
The licensing process
at 9.15 could prove interesting.
Day 3: Sunday 9 September 2007 - Conference Day 2

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Welcome Coffee

8:00 AM




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Welcome Remarks from the Chairman

9:00 AM



H.E. Dr Hussain Al-Shahristani, Minister of Oil, Iraq



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SESSION 5

9:15 AM



The New Structure of the Iraqi Oil Industry


The licensing process
The relationship between the authorities establishing what is federal and what is regional
Government participation in exploration and production
Oil revenues and future generation fund
Negotiations and contracting
Criteria and model contracting



Speaker: Dr Mussab H. Al-Dujayli
Head of Crude Oil Marketing
State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO), Ministry of Oil, Iraq
Speaker Biography...

Speaker: Abdul Ilah Qassim Al-Amir
Advisor
Prime Minister's Office, Iraq
Speaker Biography...

Speaker: Representative of H.E. the Minister of Planning
Ministry of Planning
Iraq
Speaker Biography...

Questions and Answers



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Networking Coffee Break

10:30 AM




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SESSION 6

11:00 AM
Session Chair: H.E. Dr Sinan Al Shabibi
Speaker Biography...



Impact of Market Liberalisation - Financial Aspects


Financial requirements
Policy of long-term investors confidence
The development of Iraqs upstream under the new Oil and Gas Law and the new financial measures
The huge size of the development task and the requirements
Incentives for international investment
Future financing of Iraqs oil industry



Speaker: Peter Nicol
Executive Managing Director
Tristone Capital
Speaker Biography...

Speaker: Abdulla Al-Qadi
Director Upstream Operations
Crescent Petroleum
Speaker Biography...

Questions and Answers



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Networking Lunch

12:00 PM




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SESSION 7

1:30 PM



Panel Session: Iraq's Oil Industry - Opportunities and Challenges


Measures to encourage private foreign investment in the Iraqi oil industry, operations and tactical security implications
The new structure of the Iraqi oil industry and the new legal environment; is security a hindrance to investing in Iraqs oil industry?
The effectiveness of incentives
The coordination between Iraqi NOC and the existing companies in Iraq
Creating a structure for successful co-operation
How can partnerships be structured to leverage strengths of both sides and maximise benefits for all?
Chairman:

J. Jay Park, Partner and Chair, International Energy Practice Group, Macleod Dixon llp, Calgary, Canada



Panellists:

H.E. Dr Hussain Al-Shahristani, Minister of Oil, Iraq

Abdul Ilah Qassim Al-Amir, Advisor, Prime Minister's Office, Iraq

Natiq K. Al-Bayati, Director General of Reservoir and Oil Fields Development Department

Dr Mussab H. Al-Dujayli, Head of Crude Oil Marketing, SOMO, Ministry of Oil, Iraq

Representative of H.E. the Minister of Planning

Basim Mustafa Ismail, Head of Planning Commission,Oil Exploration Company, Ministry of Oil

Senior Representative, Total

Senior Representative, Shell (to be confirmed)

Senior Representative, CNPC (to be confirmed)


Questions and Answers


CLOSING REMARKS





Speaker: Dr Alirio A. Parra
Senior Associate
CWC Associates Limited
Speaker Biography...


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coffee and Close of Conference Day 2

3:30 PM




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UPDATED ON:
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 09, 2007
10:50 MECCA TIME, 7:50 GMT

NEWS MIDDLE EAST

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/4F59F839-5FF3-4008-A520-672EDF37D243.htm

Baghdad hosts regional conference

A conference of Iraq's neighbours and other global players aimed at ending the bloodshed in Iraq have been opened in Baghdad by Nuri al-Maliki.

Opening the meeting on Sunday, the Iraqi prime minister called upon the delegates to "work seriously towards the objectives that they had gathered for".




The conference, the second of its
kind since a similar meeting in the Iraqi capital six months ago, also aims to solve Iraq's energy crisis and find ways to deal with the flood of refugees.






Al-Maliki resolve

Warning that the danger of terrorism faced the entire region, al-Maliki said Baghdad can hold the key for solving differences.
"Baghdad is determined to bring the situation to normal and Iraq can be a ground for friends and rivals [US and Iran]," the prime minister told the gathering.

Before the start of the meeting, Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi foreign minister, said the conference was crucial to maintaining peace in the region.

"The meeting is very important to us," Zebari told AFP. "Everyone is talking about reconciliation but Iraq also needs to reconcile with its neighbours."

The US military has repeatedly accused Iraq's former foe Iran and its western neighbour Syria of fomenting violence in the war-ravaged country.

Twenty-two delegations are participating in the conference, including Iran, the G8 and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

Tehran was represented by Mohammed Reza Baqeri, its deputy foreign minister, while Ashraf Qazi, the UN special representative for Iraq, was also attending the high-profile gathering.






Source: Agencies

http://www.ameinfo.com/131356.html

Kurds sign Hunt deal
Iraq: 47 minutes ago
The semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan in northern Iraq has independently signed an oil deal with the US based Hunt Oil Company even though the Iraqi government is still debating the long-delayed and controversial national oil law, reported the Dow Jones newswires. The deal has angered the Baghdad administration but Kurdish Oil Minister Ashti Hawrami said more agreements will follow, including one with a 'blue-chip company'.

English: Supreme committee to discuss laws





Baghdad, Sep. 9, P.
PM Noori Maliki would focus at his opening speech in neighbor countries' conference in Baghdad on the Govt.'s progress at security and reconciliation.




This conference concurs with meeting of Parliament blocs' leaders who formed supreme committee to discuss laws and important decisions before referring it at the Parliament.Analysts describe the 2nd Baghdad's conference as new diplomatic victory added to the Govt.'s achievements at local and international fields. PM would use this conference to assess the progress in the country and its affect at secure the region, Ahmad Hadithi, advisor of Maliki, said.Hadithi added that the delegation would be divided into three work teams:

http://www.alsabaah.com/paper.php?source=akbar&page=37

LEX

i think we will see a lot of blue tomorrow

i think we may see a lot of breath held and a very large collective whoosh of relief if US gets its nerves back together

mixitup12 - 9 Sep'07 - 18:21 - 2039 of 2042


I would feel nervous about PET's chances of getting contract(s) in Iraq because of the size of the oilfields and the competition from the oil majors. However, I am confident because of the following reasons-

1. PET have already demonstrated their ability to deliver with S & L being on time.

2. The tie-up with Itochu, which gives PET he same financial muscle and expertise as the oil majors. Plus the Japanese government has promised the Iraqi oil industry billions of dollars for refurbishment of their oil infrastructure.

3. Already established in Iraq with the Iraqi engineering company Makman, and already using Iraqi labour.

4. The Oil Majors have said that they are unwilling to work in Iraq with the current security situation.

5. The Iraqi's have said they will honour prvious agreements signed under Saddam's regime, which should secure Block 6

6. The TCA already successfully completed on Merjan.

7. PET have been asked by the Iraqi's to look at Halfaya, a giant oilfield on the Iranian border.

8. PET acceptable to and working with the Iranians as shown by DH's testimony to the Iraq Commission and the progress of Persian Gold (PNG) in Iran.

That all gives me confidence to buy and hold. However, I doubt if the hot money are aware of all these plus factors for long-term growth of PET.

The current political situation is improving, so my hope are high for the HCL to be passed fairly quickly as political progress needs to be made to justify the 'surge' and keep Al-Maliki in power.

Ignore all political statements and prepare to hold your shares until we see the HCL passed know the details of the contracts which we expect to be signed by PET. With 5(min) per contract, I am sure we are sitting on a big winner.

AIMVHO. But good luck to all who have KTF. Our time is nigh.

ttt

What does ttt mean?

Apart from that PET have done loads of spade work when no one else was prepared to give Iraq the time of day.

They will do fine.

seawallwalker, "ttt" means to the top.Read Post 208 which is a copy & paste with 22 August 2007 - AGM Statement contained in opening post.

Thanks lex.