Iraq Oil Report

Plus:
*BP exec says service contract a few months away
*Black Gold: War News Radio’s five-part series on Iraq’s oil struggles
*Sterling banks on Kurdistan, sells U.S. assets
*Attacks take out northern Iraq power
*Iraq-AmChamIraq plan energy conference

An Iraqi parliamentarian representing Iraq’s Kurds says his party will not approve a draft oil law that has been altered from the February 2007 version, United Press International reports.

Last week Abdul-Hadi al-Hasani, the deputy chair of Parliament’s Oil and Gas Committee, told UPI’s Ben Lando there were renewed negotiations over a draft law governing development and investment in Iraq’s oil sector.

BP hopes to sign within a few months a service contract designed to boost output in Iraq by 100,000 barrels per day (bpd), a senior BP executive told Simon Webb of Reuters. The deal is one of five that Iraq is negotiating with oil majors to boost output by 500,000 bpd, or nearly a quarter, from its largest oil fields. Iraqi officials had hoped to sign the deals by early April.

Black Gold: War News Radio explores the big questions still unanswered about the situation in Iraq. This week, a focus on oil:

Violence in the oil rich city of Basra from the people who live there; fuel rationing and buying from the black market in Kirkuk; US Army Brigadier General Edward Cardon about how oil infrastructure fits into the American military strategy for rebuilding Iraq; Iraq’s oil production is still far lower than expected. We find out about one cause: the country’s aging oil infrastructure; finally, we consider the controversy over Iraq’s proposed hydrocarbon law.

Sterling Energy will sell its U.S. assets to raise cash and increase focus on its Iraqi Kurdistan and Africa projects, UPI reports.

Attacks on northern Iraq’s power sector have halted a power plant near the Mosul dam, UPI reports.

Iraq’s Oil Minister and the American Chamber of Commerce – Iraq are organizing an Iraqi energy summit to take place in October at the new Baghdad International Airport Convention Center.

The general company for industrial consultation at the industry ministry carried out works of establishing secondary generator electric station in Nafar district in Diwaneya city for the interest of municipalities and public works ministry, al-Sabaah reports.

Security, Society & Politics

Alive in Baghdad: Reconstruction in remote parts of Baghdad. The project in Sadr City to improve the quality of their sewer system involves completely removing the old system, and performing a complete renovation. There were not only problems with the system do to damage from the ongoing conflict in Iraq, but previously there were long-standing capacity issues, and the sewer system is not able to handle all of the homes depending on it.

Watch the video HERE.

A spokesman for the Iranian foreign minister said Monday Tehran received a request from the United States to discuss restoring peace in Iraq, UPI reports. The spokesman, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, said Tehran received the request Monday through the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, which deals with U.S. diplomatic channels to Iran.

A struggle between Sunni Arabs and Kurds has torn apart the city of Mosul and could play a crucial role in drawing the region’s boundaries, Ned Parker reports for the Los Angeles. Far from the volatile Shiite rivalries that have shaken Baghdad and Basra, this city has been devastated by an epic struggle for land and power between Sunni Arabs and Kurds that has shattered the social fabric and could very well shape the future boundaries of northern Iraq.

##