The Kurdistan frame of mind in the Iraq oil debate is laid out by Nechirvan Barzani, prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed over the weekend.
This August, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq passed an oil and gas law to regulate the oil sector in our region. So far, we have signed eight production-sharing contracts with international oil and gas companies. We expect to sign another two in the near future. …
We hope our friends and supporters in the U.S. will understand that this is not an attempt to usurp the nation’s oil resources, but rather our best effort to move the process forward, leading by example to make these valuable resources work for the people of Iraq.
Shell, BP, Cepsa, Tupras, Erg, and Exxon Mobil will take home a combined 5 million barrels of Kirkuk oil from Ceyhan, Reuters reports.
Basra
Reidar Visser of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and the Iraq website historiae.org tells the British Now is the Worst Possible Time to Leave Basra
Even if the idea of a gradual withdrawal of British forces from Iraq is a sound one, the specific timing that is now being considered seems unwise and strikingly detached from the local political process. The immense size of the energy resources involved makes Basra an extraordinary case, in which the prospect of internal violence between competing Shiite factions is unparalleled.
Basra’s police chief says he’s ready and willing to take on the growing presence of armed militias in his area. The numbers are growing in the power vacuum, and all want a piece of the lucrative oil and fuels smuggling trade, Basil Adas reports for Gulf News.
The oil-rich city consists of 40 to 55 private militia who specialise in oil smuggling to Iran and stealing copper wires from electric grids.
Iraq’s Electricity
Nearly $80 million is being used for renovating electrical substations aimed at helping boost North Rumaila’s oil production, NewsBlaze reports.
Another $8.8 million U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project brought online a substation in Basra, which feeds residential needs and an oil/gas separation facility, Black Anthem Military News reports.
Maysan province has approved a new 400 megawatt power station, to be online by the end of next year.
Society, Security and Politics
The Sadr Movement-Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council pact announced over the weekend was not signed in Iraq, but in Iran, Iraq Slogger reports.
Tamara Walid in ArabianBusiness.com asks: Iraq: where has the money gone?
Basic services are key to winning the Iraq war, said the top operational U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, Andrew Gray reports for Reuters.
“We now need to start to improve the basic services. If we can do that, I think we will see a tipping point.” Odierno told a news conference in Washington.
“We must bring the economic and political processes in now or we could squander this opportunity that we’ve developed,” he said.
“Ultimately the government of Iraq must overcome the Sunni-Shia divide. Only the government of Iraq can truly reconcile.”
Actually, “improving the basic services,” as Odierno puts it – “quality of life,” it could also be termed – is the ONLY thing that will halt the trend of violence in Iraq and, possibly, reverse it.
The often touted dual agenda, used by Democratic and Republican Party politicos alike, that there needs to be success on the military and political fronts in order to achieve reconciliation, is false.
Every day, most Iraqis fear being kidnapped, raped, tortured and killed.
Every day there is 60 percent poverty and unemployment.
Every day Iraqis lack adequate amounts of food, fuels, clean and running water, and electricity.
Every day there is no longer a high-quality education and health care system.
Every day religious ideology decides more of their human liberties.
Every day there is less and less faith in their political leaders (which are largely considered illegitimate anyway).
Every day all of this is the reality of living in Iraq, it’s a day with less hope than the yesterday.
And every day there is no hope, it’s a day joining the insurgency or being caught up in violence is more likely.
Change this, and then you’ll see success militarily and politically. Not a day before.
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