Iraq Oil Report

Plus:
*Iraqi and U.S. dockworkers to stage May Day anti-war strikes
*Shahristani: Iraq to fast-track bidding round, giving majors last chance at TSAs
*Sunni families threatened find refuge in Shiite neighborhood
*Iraq Press Roundup
*Much more…

Higher exports and oil prices are bringing in record revenue for Iraq, but the lack of institutional capacity to spend it on capital projects is preventing further development of the oil and gas sector, according to a report by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

The report was critical of U.S. reconstruction efforts and work to help Iraq cut down corruption that, along with the inability to actually contract and spend funds, is preventing Iraqi government officials from being able to spend the funds on projects to enable the country with the world’s third-largest oil reserves to produce and export at its full potential, Ben Lando reports for United Press International.

“Although both crude production and crude exports are above target levels, Iraq is not taking full advantage of higher oil prices,” the report said. “Inadequate investment in the infrastructure hindered production and export gains.”

Iraq has earned $19.4 billion in oil revenues this year through April 20, 2008, nearly half what it earned in all of 2007, according to the U.S. State Department’s Iraq Weekly Status Report.

The SIGIR report said Iraq’s Oil and Electricity ministries may not have spent even half their capital budget; the U.S. Government Accountability Office says there isn’t adequate accounting to verify the extent of the capital expenditures but says it could be in the single-digit percentages. The U.S. State Department, which opts for the higher figure, says it’s now moved from funding capital reconstruction projects to funding efforts to build institutional capacity.

This comes as members of the U.S. Congress are threatening Iraq with legislation that would force it to spend a certain level of its own funds on reconstruction — as well as fuel for U.S. efforts — or take out in loan from the United States.

Read the entire story HERE.

Iraqi and U.S. dock workers will stop work on May Day in opposition of the War in Iraq. Longshormen on the West Coast in the United States, have planned a day-long protest, and now the General Union of Port Workers in Iraq announced a one-hour work stoppage in the ports of Umm Qasr and Khor Al Zubair in southern Iraq.

Iraq will “fast track” the first oil and gas field bidding round this year and wants rounds two and three next year, the oil minister told reporters in Rome, UPI reports.

Read Iraq’s editorial writers in the Iraq Press Roundup by UPI’s Hiba Dawood.

Iraqi leaders emerged from a three-day meeting in Finland asking Irish Deputy Premier Martin McGuinness to lead an international peace mission to Iraq, UPI reports.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani met First Vice President Adel Adb al-Mahdi Wednesday to discuss security issues and political reconciliation measures, UPI reports.

The Pentagon has suspended a program that fed information about the Iraq war to retired military officers who appeared on U.S. television networks as independent analysts, the Defense Department said, Reuters reports.

A Kurdish idealist returns to Iraq to ‘change attitudes’: Taha Barwari came back to northern Iraqi from Sweden with a mission to inspire young Kurds disaffected by decades of war, Sam Dagher reports for The Christian Science Monitor.

Neighbors aid refugees from Hawr Rajab: an exclusive look at Iraqi solidarity by Alive in Baghdad.

Teams dedicated to the job of rebuilding critical infrastructure in Iraq and Afghanistan, such as rebuilding schools and restoring electrical power, are plagued by low funding, not enough staff and poor leadership, according to a report released by the House Armed Services Committee, Greg Grant reports for Government Executive.

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