Iraq Oil Report

Basra’s Changing Hands

Iraq’s oil capital, Basra, is now officially under control of Iraqi forces. The British have “controlled” the area since 2003.

Control is relative, however, since under British occupation Iraq’s main rivalries have been allowed to foster competing militia violence and, along with other armed groups and gangs, turn the oil and fuels black market allowed by Saddam into the black market virtually condoned by political parties from Basra to Baghdad.

On Sunday, however, Britain handed control to Iraq.

Babak Dehghanpisheh has more for Newsweek.

There wasn’t much fanfare: a handful of government officials, including National Security Adviser Mowaffaq Rubaie and Basra Governor Mohammed Waeli were on hand. British foreign secretary David Miliband flew out for the occasion, and Maj. Gen. Graham Binns, the commander who marched troops into Basra in spring 2003 (a coincidence he said was “especially poignant”), presided over the official handover. “Basra security forces have demonstrated that they are capable,” Binns said. He explained that the Brits are now “guests in your country and will act accordingly.”

But the Brits aren’t quite packing their bags yet. The 4,500 British troops currently in the province will stay on to give the Iraqi security forces backup through next spring, when they will drop down to 2,500. On paper, it doesn’t appear that the British soldiers will be seeing more combat. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki would have to sign off if they were to provide backup for Iraqi forces in battle. In reality, though, it probably won’t be long before the Coalition troops are called up to fight: the rivalries between various Shiite groups have spilled over into bloody street fights several times this year. The violence in Basra has dropped noticeably in recent months, but the city is hardly secure. The official handover ceremony today was held at the Basra airport, which is miles away from the city center.

Also:
Britain bows out of a five-year war it could never have won, Patrick Cockburn reports for The Independent.

For a little too-upbeat gloss over the issue, read David Axe’s report in the Washington Times.

Uncertainty follows the Basra exit, Paul Wood reports for the BBC.

Stephen Fidler in The Financial Times quotes a London-based Iraq expert that it wasn’t the security situation in Basra that led to the British leaving, but rather the new British prime minister’s election pledge and the increase in militia threats.

The Shia militias in Basra are better armed than Iraqi forces, Kim Sengupta writes in The Independent.

A Basra Factbox, by Reuters.

The Future of Oil Rich Kirkuk

Apparently KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani has ok’d a six-month extension of the referendum deadline, AFP reports.

Iraq’s constitutional review committee wants its mandate extended to the end of next year to deal with Kirkuk and other constitutional issues, including a number which are oil related, United Press International reports.

More on Iraq’s Oil

The Tribulations of Iraq’s Oil Industry Due to the Ambiguity of the Constitution, the new column by Walid Khadduri in Al-Hayat.

Among the many humanitarian and political crises that Iraq is currently experiencing, there is a vital economic problem that will have a negative impact on the country’s economic course over the foreseeable future. This problem is having an affect today, and it is represented by the vagueness surrounding the constitutional articles that deal with the management of Iraq’s oil and gas resources. …

We hope that the dispute between the Oil Ministry and the Kurdistan Region will be sent to the Iraqi Constitutional Court to be settled as soon as possible, to reduce the resulting losses. We also hope that Iraq’s political parties will find the necessary courage to put the country’s interest ahead of narrow calculations and review these articles before their consequences spread and millions of dollars are lost annually due to disputes that will arise, and that have already started to surface.

The one-word answer to sky-high oil prices: Iraq has the third-largest oil reserves in the world – if its government could agree on how to share oil revenues, David R. Francis writes in The Christian Science Monitor.

Iraq sells 6 million barrels of Kirkuk oil to Total and Exxon Mobil and will begin 3-month deals worth 300,000 barrels per day beginning in January auctions, Iraq Directory reports.

The Iraq-Syria pipeline will be running in two years, Syrian officials said during talks in Damascus, the International Herald Tribune reports.

More from UPI.

Iraq is expanding its long war-hampered oil tanker industry, UPI reports.

Fears of attack grow amid Iraq’s booming oil production, Richard Beeston reports for The Times Online.

Iraq’s Economy

Trains from Baghdad to Basra have restarted, Al-Sabaah reports.

An Iraq-Iran train route has been finalized, the Voices of Iraq news agency reports.

Society, Security & Politics

There are now 5 million Iraqi orphans, anti-corruption board reveals, Voices of Iraq reports.

Turkey has started shelling northern Iraq again in the so-far failed hunt for leaders of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.

Turkey’s Today’s Zaman reports on the bombings Sunday, which apparently didn’t kill the PKK leader.

More also from Sabrina Tavernise in The New York Times.

Beef between Turkey and Iraq escalated to a pitch so deafening that Turkey’s prime minister came to Washington for talks days before making a decision on letting loose the military. Turkey says Iraq, and specifically the Kurdish leadership in the north, turn their cheek to the PKK, which Ankara says is using bases in northern Iraq mountains to hideout and plan attacks in Turkey.

Bradley Brooks reports for The Associated Press about Iraqi complaints its sovereignty was violated, and U.S. admission it was notified of the attacks prior to the launch.

A powerful awakening shakes up Iraqi politics, Trudy Rubin writes for The Philadelphia Inquirer about the arming of Sunni tribes against al-Qaida, which she calls “a dramatic new element on the Iraqi scene.

Aiman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Ladin’s second in command, has warned against “traitors” in insurgency, and specifically is targeting the Awakening councils, Lee Keath reports for The AP.

Iraqi President Massoud Barzani says he will not sign a controversial and restrictive KRG press bill, Voices of Iraq reports.

Rivers of Basra…Pollution and unfulfilled promises, Voices of Iraq reports.

A millennium after Najaf first became a magnet for Shiite pilgrims, leaders here are reimagining this city, long suppressed by Saddam Hussein, as a new hub of Shiite political and economic power, not just for Iraq but for the entire Middle East, Alissa J. Rubin reports for The New York Times.

Iraq enjoys more security but reconciliation still a dream, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports.

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