Plus:
*Explosion, fire at largest refinery Baiji
*Shiite/Sunni/Kurd deal-making and fighting over oil, Kirkuk
*Basra dismisses 1,000 police
*From Mothers to Martyrs
*Much, much more
There are mixed reports on Iraq’s resumption of oil exports to Turkey, which were shut down last week because of full storage tanks, not security impediments, United Press International reports. The Iraq State Oil Marketing Organization predicts 400,000 barrels per day of exports starting this month, as Iraq starts setting prices for its Kirkuk oil with more consistent exports through the pipeline to Ceyhan, Turkey.
Firefighters battled a fire in the largest refinery in Iraq, located in the northern city of Baiji, with early reports it was not caused by an attack, UPI reports.
More details from Sabah al-Bazee for Reuters.
The Al-Istaqama newspaper is reporting a “Japanese-based” oil company has signed a deal with Iraq’s Ministry of Oil to explore and drill in the Gharaf area in Dhi Qar province, northwest of Basra. A high-level official of either the province or Nasiriya, located in Dhi Qar, said the oil production will be fed to a new refinery, which is part of the deal.
Iraqi political factions upset with current leadership have pledged to support the central government in oil deals, an apparent knock to the Kurds, UPI reports.
The Kurdistan Regional Government and their leaders in Baghdad – including President of Iraq Jalal Talabani – are at odds with others in the central government – including Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani – over a number of issues: the national oil law, the KRG’s regional oil law and oil deals and the status of Kirkuk, to name a few.
This has prompted speculation that the Kurdish Alliance will leave Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s governing coalition, which relies on the KA for its slim majority. The Voices of Iraq news agency reports Talabani is denying he’ll leave the government. It’s not clear how the new anti-Kurd/Maliki pact, nor the reported deal struck between the Kurds and a disaffected Sunni bloc, will affect power relations in Baghdad.
Regardless, the issue over Kirkuk is far from settled. Iraq’s Kurdish deputy prime minister warned Monday that failure to resolve the fate of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk could result in more strife and accused people within the government of blocking a solution, Qassim Abdul-Zahra reports for The Associated Press.
For more on the status of both Kirkuk and Basra, Iraq’s two oil capitals, read my story for UPI here.
Saboteurs brought down a power line, cutting all electricity from the northern town of Baiji, Iraq, to areas south, an Electricity Ministry spokesman said, UPI reports.
Iraq’s Electricity Ministry says an unnamed Japanese firm will reconstruct the Taji power plant, located just outside Baghdad, UPI reports.
Iraq is looking to develop the western Akkaz gas field, which may feed European customers via Syria, UPI reports.
No mandarin in the Iraqi oil ministry is likely to dine alone over the next few years. Every international major has people on the ground, spending big sums on soft persuasion, from the status update of the Financial Times’ Lex, titled Iraqi Oil Dreams.
Mission Not Yet Accomplished: How Iraq figures in Big Oil’s dreams, by Linda McQuaig at ZMag.org. McQuaig is a journalist and author of It’s the Crude, Dude: Greed, Gas, War and the American Way, published by St. Martin’s Press.
The “Price Check” column by IraqSlogger.com details Baghdad’s supply of black market fuels, which have stabilized throughout the capital’s neighborhoods over the past few weeks.
Security, Society & Politics
Iraq surge brings a lull in violence but no reconciliation, by Steve Negus in the Financial Times.
A high-level delegation from the Arab League will arrive in Iraq in the next few days to activate the national reconciliation project, a member of the Iraqi parliament said, Voices of Iraq news agency reports.
The Iraq Press Roundup by Hiba Dawood for UPI.
Basra’s police boss has transferred 1,000 of his police officers to stations outside the city in a move to purge the force of elements believed to be loyal to their political and sectarian factions, Abed Battat reports for Azzaman.
New look at foreign fighters in Iraq: An analysis shows that the bulk of them come from countries allied with the US, by Gordon Lubold for The Christian Science Monitor.
From Mothers To Martyrs
An investigation into the “New Phenomena of Women Suicide Bombers in Iraq,” by Farhana Ali in IraqSlogger.com. Ali is a Policy Analyst at the U.S. think tank the Rand Corp.
The U.S. in Iraq
Iraq’s Unknown Economy, a new op-ed inThe Washington Times by Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
While his writing continues to be a little too cheery and Administration-influenced (“Iraq’s security situation improves dramatically” ), this report is right on posing the chilling rhetorical Q&A:
While the U.S. government can point to many individual projects that are progressing or reaching the ribbon-cutting phase, we do not have a sense of overall national trends. How many Iraqis get water? How many have their trash picked up, or sewage removed dependably from their neighborhoods? How many get the water they need to irrigate their crops? How many get basic health care when they need it? How many of their kids are in school? And how do all these numbers compare to last year, or the latter years of Saddam’s rule — important benchmarks in shaping Iraqis’ perceptions of their government’s performance (not to mention that of the United States)?
The answers are blowing in the wind. American aid agencies either do not have viable strategies to collect meaningful data or believe they must defer to sovereign Iraqi authorities on such matters.
Iraq’s Economy
Parliament was supposed to vote Monday on Iraq’s 2008 budget, Voices of Iraq reports.
Iraq’s two successful mobile telephone network operators MTC Atheer and Iraqna have merged into Zain In Iraq to serve nearly 7.5 million customers all over the country, Voices of Iraq reports.
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