Iraq Oil Report

Plus:
*DNO nearer to export oil
*IMF gives Iraq marks on economy
*Basra power plant up and running
*Rumors over Maliki future
*Alive in Baghdad: Sadr City
*Much more

Norway’s DNO will expand its successful Tawke project in northern Iraq, moving closer to being able to export oil via pipeline, Ben Lando reports for United Press International. Exporting the Kurdistan region oil depends more on politics than geology, however, as the central Iraqi government and Kurdistan Regional Government have not agreed on KRG exports. DNO announced Friday its Tawke production-sharing contract has been amended and now includes part of the area included in the Dohuk production-sharing contract, as well as a 15 percent working interest increase to 55 percent.

Here’s what UPI’s Lando found about the export debate during a recent trip to Iraq.

For more on oil contracts in northern Iraq, read Lando’s UPI article “Wildcatters in controversial northern Iraq oil deals optimistic.”

The IMF Executive Board has given good grades to Iraq during its first review of the Stand-By Agreement. An IMF statement said, in part, “Progress has been made in strengthening governance and fighting corruption in the hydrocarbon sector, through oil-metering and Iraq’s participation in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. An extension of the metering system to all oil sector activities will further strengthen transparency in the sector.”

Renovation work on Basra’s al-Najibiya electricity station has been completed, according to the Ministry of Industry and Minerals, noting that all work has been carried out by “Iraqi hands,” Voices of Iraq reports.

Americans, increasingly resenting recent moves by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki, could seek to topple or even assassinate him, says a secret report by a Kurdish political party, which is part of the national government, Basil Adas reports for Gulf News. The report, which Gulf News has seen, says Al Maliki does not want to see any US soldier in Iraq after 2011 and he preferred strong political, economic and military relations with the Americans but not the presence and influence of the US military in his country.

The Iraqi government will not turn its back on the men who paid in blood for the country’s fragile peace, said the officials on stage in the ballroom at Baghdad’s al-Rasheed Hotel, referring to U.S.-paid Sunni militias, Nicholas Spangler and Mohammed al Dulaimy report for McClatchy Newspapers. But the Awakening leaders listened warily. “I don’t trust a word they said,” said one, afterward.

Analysts, U.S. Officials Differ on Maliki’s Plans for Sons of Iraq, Hampton Stevens writes for World Politics Review. Among the gravest risks to the continuing improvement of the situation in Iraq is that Sunni militias now allied with the United States will not be successfully integrated into Iraqi Security Forces or find employment in the civilian economy, say Iraq analysts and U.S. government officials. But independent observers and U.S. officials differ sharply in their assessments of the possibility of a reversal in the Sunni “Awakening,” which is almost universally credited as a significant factor in recent reductions in violence.

Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh noted that provincial elections might be carried out in late December using old procedures if lawmakers fail to agree on a new election law, Alsumaria TV reports.

Alive in Baghdad: What Happened in Sadr City?

This week on War News Radio: a closer look at the recent hand over of Al-Anbar Province to Iraqi Security Forces, and learn why this transfer of power is especially significant; the latest on the cholera outbreak that is threatening southern Iraq; Muslims across the world are celebrating Ramadan this month - find out how Iraqis are marking the holiday – all on War News Radio.

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