Iraq Oil Report

Plus:
* More on the Iraq-Shell joint venture for south gas
*Weather impedes oil exports
*Tenders announced for drilling in Rumaila and Luhais
*Much more…

The Kirkuk oil field in northern Iraq could be producing 70,000 barrels more per day, but a dispute between Iraq’s central and Kurdish regional governments has kept the needed equipment gathering dust, Ben Lando reports for United Press International. Two weeks ago the security forces of the two governments, which don’t always work in league, had a 24-hour standoff over the northernmost section of the oil field, called Khurmala Dome.

The Iraqi Oil Ministry is negotiating with Royal Dutch Shell on a joint venture deal to develop natural gas associated with oil production in southern Iraq, two officials said, The Associated Press reports.

The head of the Basra Economic Development Committee, Munadhil Abid Khanjar, said that Shell had approached the Oil Ministry last December with its plans and since then meetings have been held outside Iraq. A senior official with the Iraqi Oil Ministry in Baghdad said Shell is expected to invest US$3 billion to US$4 billion in five years to gather at least 500-600 million cubic feet a day of flared gas from the southern oil fields. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to release information before the deal is finalized, added the state-run South Gas Co. would control 51 percent in the venture while Shell would hold the remaining 49 percent.

A remaining question, however, is how will the agreement handle the competing interests: Iraq to utilize as much of the gas domestically as possible, and Shell to export as much as possible and sell on the market?

Violent winds have disrupted oil exports from Iraq’s main southern oil port of Basra for the past four days, an Iraqi oil engineer said, Reuters reports. Exports have halted completely since early Monday and may restart later in the day, the engineer and a shipping agent said. Only one of eight ships waiting to dock since Saturday had managed to berth, said the engineer, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

Iraq has opened a tender to drill two deep exploration wells at large oilfields in the south of the country, Iraq’s Oil Exploration Co., Ahmed Rasheed reports for Reuters. The state-run company published a notice on its website and in Iraq’s official al-Sabah newspaper inviting bids to drill two wells in the South Rumaila and Luhais oilfields around Basra.

Baghdad residents complain that power and water supplies are poor, which has undermined confidence in the state and offset some of the improvements that have resulted from the decline in violence, Steve Negus reports for the Financial Times.

Over the past year, dozens of state-owned enterprises have cautiously reopened for business after years of neglect from Iraq’s central government and failed efforts to privatise them by the US administration, the FT’s Jack Fairweather reports in a concise article that details U.S. governments prerogative to privatize the Iraqi economy, oil and all; disregard for anything but the American free marketers’ dream; Iraq’s priorities worrying about jobs rather than whether a cement factory is run by the state or a private company; and all this in a U.S. constructed new Iraq economy that has eliminated or severely low tariffs on cheap foreign goods.

The Love Stories Are Gone, Ali al-Fadhily writes for Inter Press Service. As statistics go, at least 655,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the occupation, now in its fifth year. Every one of them has left behind once loved ones to mourn the loss and to think of what might have been.

Bread and Butter Issues – this week on War News Radio, explore the current food crises gripping Iraq: the state of agriculture in Iraq and why food production is coming up short; hat with Robin Lodge from the World Food Program in Iraq. As food prices rise around the globe, how and how much is Iraq affected?; three Iraqis from Kurdistan talk about the day-to-day problems they face when buying and selling food.

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