The Iraqi Oil Ministry says that oil exports in July inched up to 58.8 million barrels — a 0.7 percent increase from the previous month, the AP reported.
The statement says the barrel was sold at an average price of $113.8 and yielded $6.692 billion. June’s price stood at $123 a barrel.
The statement adds that 46.9 million barrels were exported through the country’s south and 11.9 million barrels from the north, from Turkey’s port of Ceyhan. The oil was uploaded by 19 international oil companies.
“Oil has destroyed our land; oil has changed the demographics … Even now we feel there is an injustice done to Kirkuk because of oil,” Abdulrahman Mustafa Fattah, the Kurdish Governor of Kirkuk, told The Times.
Iraq and China have agreed the terms of a $3 billion oil service contract, Iraq’s oil minister said, announcing the first major oil contract with a foreign firm since the fall of Saddam Hussein, Emma Graham-Harrison and Jim Bai write for Reuters.
Energy-hungry China has beaten international oil majors to take the first opening since the U.S.-led invasion for work on the world’s third-largest reserves.
Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani warned that time was running out for big Western oil firms, which have jostled for years for Iraqi contracts, to seal even the short-term deals that were expected to mark their return to the country.
Shahristani announced that Iraq made an income of $36 billion in the first semester of the current year. This income is equivalent to the amount the ministry has to provide to the budget for the whole current year, Shahristani added, saying the cause is due to the increase in the quantity of exports and the increase of oil prices.
Shahristani stressed that Iraq sells crude oil according to international prices and that the increase of selling prices influences automatically the price of Iraq oil, al-Sumaria reported.
An Iraqi power expert accused the Electricity Ministry of issuing false figures with regard to electricity output, status of power stations and power imports.
Isam al-Khalisi said information and statistics by the ministry were “inaccurate and contradictory.”
The expert made the remarks to Azzaman in the aftermath of press reports claiming that Iraq was now capable of producing half of its power needs estimated at 10,000 megawatts.
A most recent report attributed to Adel Mahdi, the ministry’s adviser, said power output had soared to 5,302 megawatts – almost equivalent to pre-war output.
“The adviser’s (Mahdi’s) figures contradict statistics issued by the ministry in 2006 for example and a press conference by the minister himself earlier this month,” Khalisi said.
ConocoPhillips chief executive James Mulva said his company expects to participate in the tender for the rights to develop Iraq’s West Qurna-2 field together with Russia’s OAO Lukoil, Interfax reported.
Mulva expects the tender to be held next year.
In total, West Qurna has estimated reserves between 15 billion and 21 billion barrels of oil.
Lukoil in 1997 reached an agreement with the former Iraqi government to exploit the field, but Saddam Hussein cancelled this deal in 2002.
Baziyan Refinery set to start production next month with a 10,000-barrel-per-day capacity.
One of the most significant oil projects in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, which is expected to reduce the fuel shortage in the region, is near completion and hopefully will start production this September, The Kurdish Globe reported.
Work on the Baziyan Refinery started in 2006 and was expected to finish earlier this year, but due to security issues and other difficulties, it was not finished in time. However, despite those challenges, the company building the refinery has been able to complete 85% of the project.
Iraq’s Planning Minister Ali Baban invited Turkish companies complying with Iraq’s technical criteria to enter tenders in Iraq and said the Iraqi government would soon collect bids for electricity projects.
Entrepreneurs investing in Iraq at present would soon obtain positive results, while Turkey-Iraq relations gain momentum, should Iraq overcome its problems, Baban told a press conference in Istanbul.
Baban said he had the opportunity to meet with Turkish businessmen in the last two days who communicated to him the problems they encountered in Iraq. He said they would be discussing these problems during the remainder of his visit, Hurriyet reported.
##
“Iraq and China have agreed the terms of a $3 billion oil service contract, Iraq’s oil minister said, announcing the first major oil contract with a foreign firm since the fall of Saddam Hussein”
But wait, haven’t the stupid, knuckleheaded Liberals consistently claimed that the Iraq war was all about oil for the Big Oil Majors? Hmmm? Is China part of the Big Oil Majors? No? I guess that means that the Liberals have been LYING, as usual. No surprise there.
When you completely destroy a country’s economy and its people, the least you can do is let them sell their most valuable export to buyers at the market price…. The benefit to the US Govt and energy demands isnt as direct as getting “cheap” oil, its about control, with its influence over Saudi and Iraq the US not indirectly controls the two largest oil reserves in the world!
Look at the big picture!