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Basra break in violence allows oil workers to leave, head to work…

Published
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Iraq Oil Report
on March 31, 2008
in Uncategorized
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Plus:
*The State of Basra
*Crescent Petroleum sponsors Iraqi universities in oil confab
*Oil deals unlikely for months
*Iraq war drains U.S. budget for fuel
*Iraqi parties prevent ban on honor killing
*Japan-Iraq collaboration

A lull in fighting in the oil-rich province of Basra allowed oil field workers to return to work, ensuring output of around 2 million barrels per day continued without disruption, Reuters reports.

For more on this threat, United Press International’s Ben Lando spoke Friday with the leader of the oil workers Friday.

Three Iraqi universities sent delegates to the GetEnergy 2008 summit in London this month, courtesy of Crescent Petroleum, UPI reports. Crescent, based in the United Arab Emirates, is among the international oil companies hoping to land a deal in Iraq’s oil and gas sector. The companies have provided free training and studies to Iraq’s Oil Ministry. Crescent and Dana Gas, of which Crescent is a major shareholder, are developing gas prospects in Iraqi Kurdistan. While companies that have signed deals with the Kurdistan Regional Government have been threatened with blacklisting by Baghdad, Crescent appears untouched.

Iraq and five oil majors are unlikely to sign service deals to boost output from some of the country’s largest fields before June after a slowdown in negotiations, Simon Webb reports for Reuters.

Oil giants line up to claim their slice of Iraq’s riches, writes Patrick Sherwin, senior consultant in the financial services practice at Control Risks.

After invading one of the most petroleum-rich countries on earth, the U.S. military is running on empty. Today the average American G.I. in Iraq uses about 20.5 gallons of fuel every day, more than double the daily volume consumed by U.S. soldiers in Iraq in 2004, Robert Bryce writes in the cover story for The American Conservative. Thus, in order to secure the third-richest country on the planet, the U.S. military is burning enormous quantities of petroleum. And nearly every drop of that fuel is imported into Iraq.

If the US’s principal interests in Iraq can be summarized in one word - oil - then the EU’s can be summarized in two: oil and gas, David Cronin writes in The Guardian.

The State of Basra

Fighting has lulled in Basra, following a deal struck by Moqtada Sadr and Iraqi Parliamentarians – in Iran, Leila Fadel reports for McClatchy Newspapers. Sadr ordered the Mahdi Army to only fire if attacked, Erica Goode and James Glanz report for The New York Times.

The clash between Iraq’s security forces and the Mahdi Army, mostly, left hundreds dead and the survivors needing food and water, Aljazeera reports.

The U.N. humanitarian office says there’s a fuel shortage as well.

A major reason for the defeat of the Iraqi army is the unpopularity of the country’s leaders. Many of the soldiers switched sides, The Times reports, and have been fired, Azzaman reports.

Aljazeera has a profile of the Mahdi Army.

Aref Mohammed for Reuters reports on Basra when the dust clears and ongoing violence in Baghdad, as the Green Zone gets pummeled still.

More narrative of the fight:

19 Tense Hours in Sadr City Alongside the Mahdi Army, by The Washington Post’s Sudarsan Raghavan

The biggest surprise about the raging battles that erupted last week in southern Iraq was not that the combatants were fellow Shiites, but that it took this long, Ned Parker writes for the Los Angeles Times.

All explanations are possible for the current fighting in Basra, the largest city in southern Iraq situated in an area which floats on massive oil riches, Fatih Abdulsalam writes for Azzaman. But the reality of the situation which tells volumes about what is happening is the fact that war, in the fullest sense of the word, has been raging without interruption in Iraq for the past five years.

The country’s powerful Islamic parties and leaders are resisting reform of a law that sanctions lenient punishments for those found guilty of so-called honor killings, Basim al-Shara’ reports for the Institute for War & Peace Reporting. Article 111 of the Iraqi penal code - passed in 1969 - allows a lesser punishment for the killing of women if the male defendants are found to have had “honorable motives.”

Acting Minister of State for Women’s Affairs Narmin Othman’s initiative is primarily backed by secularists and has received the support of about 60 members of parliament from the secular Iraqi List and the Kurdish Alliance, according to Iraqi List MP Maysoon al-Damalogy.

However, representatives from the Shia United Iraqi Alliance - the most powerful bloc in parliament, led by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki - and the Sunni-led Iraqi Accord Front both oppose the legislation.

Japan-Iraq relations: investment and presence

The following is the latest newsletter published by The Shingetsu Institute for the Study of Japanese-Islamic Relations:

THE GSDF LEGACY IN SAMAWA

It may surprise you to hear that the Shingetsu Institute hasn’t issued a report on recent Japanese activities vis-a-vis Iraq since late November of last year. That’s a four-month gap! The main reason we haven’t talked about it is because the Japanese media and MOFA aren’t saying too much about it either. For example, the ongoing ASDF mission in Iraq has been virtually invisible as far as I’ve been able to discover. My hunch is that most of the Japanese public has now forgotten all about it. Out of sight, out of mind.

Yesterday, however, Kyodo News was kind enough to produce a follow-up piece on GSDF reconstruction projects in Samawa. For the entire period that the GSDF was stationed in its base near Samawa, the Koizumi Administration and its camp followers repeatedly insisted that their presence was needed there in order to carry out ‘humanitarian and reconstruction support activities.’

It is not easy to evaluate clearly the degree to which the local community in Samawa really benefitted from the GSDF activities. During the GSDF deployment itself, most news reports suggested that a majority of the local people were pleased to have the Japanese among them as they imagined that their presence would signal major improvements in the local economy and because the Japanese troops didn’t shoot anybody. On the other hand, there was a minority — apparently affiliated with the Mahdi Army of Muqtada al-Sadr — who did not welcome the GSDF on the Iraqi nationalist grounds that they were allies of the American occupiers. These people fired mortars at the GSDF base and created a sense of threat, but never actually wounded any Japanese soldiers. The fact that the GSDF was able to complete their 2 1/2 years in Iraq without taking any casualties can be regarded as a success for the political supporters of the mission. They seem to have benefitted from a combination of careful planning, risk-avoiding local strategies, and simple good luck.

The total amount of money that Japan spent on Iraqi reconstruction is impressive. Tokyo pledged US$1.5 billion in grant aid and US$3.5 billion in loans at the Madrid Conference of October 2003. Since that time, MOFA has been announcing various projects on which this money would be spent. MOFA says that the US$1.5 billion in grants has already been completely distributed, and that in fact an additional US$105 million in emergency grant aid was provided to Iraq over the course of 2007 (see Shingetsu Newsletter No. 529). Beyond all of this, Tokyo has pledged to forgive 80% of Iraq’s debts from the Saddam Husain era, which totaled about US$7.6 billion (see Shingetsu Newsletter No. 123). I’m not an economist, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the real cost of the Iraq adventure to the Japanese taxpayer is now well over US$10 billion.

At any rate, the point of the Kyodo News report released yesterday is that for all of this investment, the real improvements in Samawa may not be so great. As they put it, ‘there are many examples of mismanaged support.’ One of the key problems seems to be that the local Iraqis don’t have the technical training necessary to complete and operate these projects. (In the 1980s, Iraq was one of the most sophisticated countries in the developing world in this respect.)

Muhammad Jordan, chairman of the construction committee of the al-Muthanna provincial council, stated that ‘it is strange to rely on others to rebuild your home. The Japanese did their best to assist the al-Muthanna people, but the problems were with those (Iraqi) people.’ Saad Rahim Salman, a manager at a large local power plant said, ‘It is the first time for the Iraqi people to embark on such a large-size project from scratch. There are no foreign engineers… There are many holidays in Islam.’

The Kyodo News report continues by noting that ‘there are precision medical devices that cannot be used due to a lack of parts, and power generators abandoned because of the delivery of secondhand ones.’

Some local people, like schoolteacher Salah Khlaif, supported the GSDF mission: ‘The withdrawal was too early. I wanted Japan to stay longer.’ Others, like the unemployed Haidar Nassir, were not impressed with the help from Tokyo: ‘The Japanese support has left only vulgar rich people and corruption behind.’

Returning to the crucial power plant project mentioned above, an engineer at the plant referred to the fact that construction has been well behind schedule. Construction began in April 2006 and was scheduled for completion last November. The new target is June of this year. The engineer explained, ‘The appearance is 90% complete, but the core part is still only 60% complete.’

Hmm. So it appears attractive on the face of it, but is hollow at the core, eh?

That’s not a bad metaphor for Tokyo’s entire Iraq War policy.

THE ‘STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP’ AND THE RECONCILIATION DIALOGUE

Did Japan Focus and the Shingetsu Newsletter change Japanese policy on Iraq? I don’t know. But since the time I wrote my critique of the concept of the ‘long-term and strategic partnership’ between Japan and Iraq the slogan seems to have disappeared from MOFA statements. Perhaps my essay caused them to reevaluate their message? Or perhaps they have dropped the slogan for reasons entirely unrelated to my essay in Shingetsu Newsletter No. 807? Or is the slogan still alive, but they just haven’t mentioned it in the last four months?

This past week Tokyo hosted the ‘Second Seminar on National Reconciliation of Iraq.’ The program saw invitations to thirteen Iraqi MPs and others (eleven actually attended) who were Shia, Sunni, and Kurdish. The only participant who was named in the press was Kurdish parliamentarian Alaa al-Talabani. As the official MOFA statement put it: ‘The Seminar is held based on the consideration that the promotion of national reconciliation among different ethnic/sectarian groups is essential for a solid stabilization of Iraq, while the current security situation in Iraq showing signs of improvement. It is expected that Japan’s efforts of holding such Seminar would contribute to that end. During the period, the delegation will have meetings with the Japanese Government officials as well as the members of the Japanese parliament. The participants will also discuss among themselves on the current issues of Iraq such as Oil and Gas Law, Amendment of the Constitution and Federalism. Further, visit to Hiroshima is planned so that they can share the experiences of Japan’s post-war democratization, peace building, and reconstruction.’

However, the MOFA statement said nothing about the ‘long-term and strategic partnership’ between Japan and Iraq as we might have expected on such an occasion.

A somewhat similar program occurred in February. Upon the request, apparently, of the office of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and the Iraqi Foreign Ministry (both offices currently held by Kurds), MOFA and JICA offering training programs for Iraqi diplomats.

Again, on that occasion, there was no mention of the ‘long-term and strategic partnership.’

It thus seems that the ‘long-term’ partnership may have thus lasted all of eight months.

RECENT JAPANESE AID TO IRAQ

In the past four months, most reports on Japan-Iraq relations have concerned aid programs. The following is a round-up of both public and private aid stories:

– In late December, Tokyo donated through the UNHCR 1,000 tents for Iraqi refugees.

– At the beginning of this year, it was announced that an unnamed Japanese signed an agreement of cooperation with Iraq’s Electricity Ministry. The company was to rehabilitate the gas-powered Taji electrical station located in northern Baghdad. Apparently, the awarding of this contract to the unnamed Japanese company was tied to a grant that Tokyo offered to the Electricity Ministry.

– In January, it was announced that the next round of reconstruction loans, part of the US$3.5 billion mentioned above, would be targeted on repair of the Al-Musaib thermal power station in suburban Baghdad, the restoration of tanker mooring facilities off Basra, and the construction of roads and bridges near Samawa.

– In February, the Yomiuri reported about a Yokohama-based NPO that was selling chocolate in the run-up to St. Valentine’s Day in order to raise money for medicine and classes for Iraqi children.

– Also in February, MOFA donated almost US$19 million through the UNDP for the establishment of a maternity and children’s hospital in Falluja. This project seems to have a close relationship to the activities of the Hashida Memorial Mohammed Fund run by the wife of slain Japanese journalist Shinsuke Hashida.

– This month, MOFA offered almost US$30,000 for another maternity and children’s hospital in Sadr City, Baghdad.

MOFA PRESS SECRETARY STATEMENTS

In the past six months or so, the MOFA press secretary has offered only these two official statements on internal Iraqi issues:

Statement by the Press Secretary on the Adoption of the Accountability and Justice Law by the Iraqi Council of Representatives
January 13, 2008

On January 12, the Iraqi Council of Representatives adopted the Accountability and Justice Law. The Government of Japan welcomes this as an important progress towards the national reconciliation of Iraq.

The Law enables former Ba’ath party members who were purged from public offices since 2003 to reassume a public position. The Government of Japan expects that this will contribute to gathering momentum for the progress of the national reconciliation and to further improving the security situation in Iraq.

The Government of Japan has been rendering assistance to Iraqi national reconciliation endeavors by, in particular, hosting the Iraqi National Reconciliation Seminar, and it is determined to continue to assist the efforts of Iraq. The Government of Japan will also actively support Iraqi economic reconstruction by implementing various economic assistance projects.

Statement by the Press Secretary on Consecutive Suicide Bomb Attacks in Baghdad, Iraq
February 3, 2008

Japan greatly feels shocked and indignant over the consecutive suicide bomb attacks in Baghdad, Iraq, which caused many deaths and injuries on February 1. Terrorism cannot be justified for any reason, and Japan reiterates its firm condemnation of these atrocious acts of terrorism that victimize many innocent people.

Japan expresses its deepest sympathy for those who have been killed by terrorist attacks, including this time, and condolences to the families of the victims. It also expresses its heartfelt sympathy toward the injured and prays for their early recovery.

Japan expects that the ethnic and religious groups will show mutual respect, and continue making efforts toward nation-building while promoting national reconciliation. Japan will proactively support such effort of Iraqi people.
–

Pipeline blast in southern Iraq fixed, oil flow rerouted …

Published
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Iraq Oil Report
on March 28, 2008
in Uncategorized
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*But danger looms as workers can’t get to work
*Those at stations since Tuesday running out of supplies, food and sleep
*Basra violence threatens oil investment
*Recap of violence from Basra to Baghdad
*Port workers say military aims is to privatize
*Humanitarian aid desperately needed but unable to reach Basra
*KRG posts electricity tenders

Iraq oil flow cut by a pipeline bombing Thursday has returned, but continued fighting in Basra will soon take its toll.

“There’s a curfew in Basra so the workers are not able to go to work,” Hassan Jumaa Awad, president of the umbrella Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions, told United Press International’s Ben Lando via telephone from his home.

Gunfire grew loud during the interview Friday evening as Iraq’s military assault on the city closed out day number four with an estimated 100 dead and 500 injured. This has prevented workers in the field from leaving as well.

“They are stuck there and are not able to get out,” Awad said, “but our workers are still there and trying even without enough security they continue their work and they continue working the stations.”

He said food and supplies are being brought to the workers, whose usual eight-hour shift has lasted days with the violence’s end unclear, “but they are not sure how long this will continue.”

Violence imperils Iraq’s oil progress: Attacks in Basra come amid talks with Western firms, Hassan Hafidh and John D. McKinnon report for The Wall Street Journal.

The Iraqi military assault in Basra has seen a huge swing in new violence not only in Iraq’s second largest city and key oil hub, but throughout the south and especially in Baghdad. A special session of Parliament was called but only 54 of 275 members could make it to the Green Zone as the usually safer area was shelled, the BBC reports.

Thousands loyal to cleric Moqtada Sadr rallied in the Baghdad neighborhood Sadr City and called for Prime Minister Maliki to resign, the Voices of Iraq news agency reports. Sources tell Iraq Oil Report that areas of Baghdad controlled by the Sadr’s militia, the Mahdi Army, are on lockdown in protest, halting business in the capital that had seen an increase in stability after the surge.

In Basra, Iraqi armed forces stunned once again by the strength of militias relied on U.S. backup Erica Goode reports for the International Herald Tribune.

British airstrikes have also started in Basra, the South London Press reports.

Maliki, with the backing of Sadr nemesis Islamic Supreme Council for Iraq and the Kurdish Coalition, is not backing down Alsumaria TV reports, though has extended the deadline to lay down arms according to the AP.

The UK-based support group of Iraq’s unions, Naftana, has issued a statement condemning the Iraqi military action in Basra as an attack on workers’ rights and an assist to privatization of Iraq’s economy.

Naftana’s statement, requested by the Umm Qasr port workers and southern Iraq oil workers, said in part “The city streets were free of the occupying forces before the assault and the regime’s attacks will make it even more dependent on the occupation forces.”

The statement, which is reproduced in full at the end of today’s Iraq Oil Report, said this is a push to replace the dock workers and company with an international port firm, as documented earlier this month by James Glanz in The New York Times, and on the heals of Vice President Cheney’s visit to Iraq, and the creation of a British-led Basra Development Commission.

Voices of Iraq reports two cargo ships braved the fighting and made it to Umm Qasr port. Dubai Ports International said it will invest in Iraq’s ports, Voices of Iraq report in a separate article.

The humanitarian situation and aid operations continued to deteriorate in Basra as heavy fighting between government forces and militiamen of the Mahdi Army led by radical Shia leader Moqtada al-Sadr entered its third day, said Salih Hmoud, head of the Iraqi Red Crescent Society’s office in Basra.

The International Organization for Migration’s humanitarian activities in Iraq’s southern city of Basra and as well as in other southern governorates have been put on hold as violence and curfew prevent staff and partners from providing humanitarian assistance to internally displaced people (IDPs) and vulnerable populations.

Iraqi Ministry of Trade (MOT) formed on Friday an operations room to follow up sending foodstuff to Basra in the coming few days, Voices of Iraq report.

Five Things You Need to Know to Understand the Latest Violence in Iraq, by Joshua Holland and Raed Jarrar in Alternet.

Iraq’s Oil, Power & Economy

Moscow has stepped up its attempts to become Washington’s main rival in the Middle East with an audacious attempt to win a large stake of Iraq’s oil wealth, Adrian Blomfield reports for The Telegraph. Glossing over his opposition to the American-led invasion and a prolonged period of poor relations with Baghdad, President Vladimir Putin wrote to Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, this week setting out the case for Russian investment in the energy sector.

It was announced this week that Lukoil president Vagit Alekperov visited the Middle Eastern country and reached an agreement with its leadership to establish a working group that will work out conditions for implementation of the West Qurna-2 project, Marina Pustilnik also recaps for Moscow News. In addition to this, Lukoil’s subsidiary Lukoil Overseas will take part in tenders for development of new fields in Iraq after the country’s government approves the new Law on Oil.

The Kurdistan Regional Government Ministry of Electricity announced invitations to companies to express their interest in submitting bids and proposals for the contract for a 132 kV OH TL Chamchamal Power Plant Connection to the Suleimaniah System, and the extension of 132/33/11kV GIS Substations.

Iraq to cancel tax reduction from employees’ monthly salaries, Alsumaria TV reports.

Kirkuk Update

Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region would be ready to accept an equitable political solution other than a referendum to the controversial issue of control of the oil-rich Kirkuk area, a senior official said on Friday.

“If there is any other solution (than the referendum), the government of Kurdistan is committed to be part of this solution, that could be an option,” the Kurdish government’s official responsible for external relations told Agence France-Presse. “The government of Kurdistan would be ready to accept a political agreement that would satisfy all the parties,” added Falah Mustafa Bakir.

Kirkuk is threatened by a lack of water, Alsumaria TV reports.

The Iraq Press Roundup, by UPI’s Hiba Dawood.

The Naftana statement on workers in Basra:

Press Release
28 March 2008

Basra Assault Confirms Presence of British forces a Threat to Political and Trade Union Rights in Iraq

In a series of telephone calls from Basra over the past 48 hours, Iraqi trade union activists appeal for solidarity and describe how the so-called ‘Security Plan’ started midnight 24 March with intense shelling and fire from all kind of weapons.x

The attacking forces now besieging Basra stretched all the way to the city from Dhi Qar province. Two armoured divisions are deployed, in addition to thousands of policemen, backed by US and British planning and air cover. They have cut off electricity supplies, food and water on the city of 1.5 million people. Hundreds have been killed or injured in a savage, premeditated and unprovoked attack, now spreading to much of Iraq as the people protest and show solidarity with Basra’s beleaguered people.

They describe the attack as far worse than the invasion of 2003 and begun in the same barbaric manner that the criminal Saddam employed against Basra to crush the March 1991 people’s uprising. They remind us that the present puppet Iraqi government sentenced Saddam’s Defence Minister to death few months ago for similar crimes of waging war on civilians. The assault is
backed by the US and British occupation forces, particularly in providing
air cover. US planes are also bombarding areas in the Basra, several southern cities and Baghdad, where tens of thousands marched yesterday denouncing the “puppet regime”. It is now, along with many other cities, under a strict curfew enforced by regime and occupation forces.

Trade union leaders have asked us to inform the public in Britain that the government’s attack on Basra serves the occupation. The city is “steadfast” and the onslaught will end in “utter failure.” The city streets were free of the occupying forces before the assault and the regime’s attacks will
make it even more dependent on the occupation forces, they stressed.

Naftana, the UK support committee for the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions in the struggle for democratic trade unionism in Iraq, condemns British collusion in the preparation of the assault on Basra city and British participation in air strikes.

Naftana urges all to join in calling for an immediate withdrawal of British forces from Iraq, ending the US-led occupation, and the payment of reparations to Iraq.

In the absence of adequate media coverage of the nature and context of this savage onslaught, Naftana wants to set the record straight on UK involvement.

In December 2007, the Basra Development Commission (BDC) was formally announced after discussions between Gordon Browne and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih. (1) Browne appointed a British businessman, Michael Wareing, Chief Executive of KPMG International as “Commissioner”, apparently heading the BDC. (2) Wareing visited Basra in February and made outrageous comments, confirming his real interests to be those of predatory
business rather than the security, development and well-being of Basra and its people.

Wareing told The Observer: “If you look at many other economies in the world, particularly the oil-rich economies, many of these places are quite challenging countries in which to do business. … Frankly, if you can successfully operate in the Niger Delta, that is a very different benchmark
from imagining that Basra needs to be like London or Paris.” (3)

Wareing’s appointment was welcomed by Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, a major advocate of the 2003 invasion and of privatisation. On March 13 the British Defence Minister Des Browne met with Salih in Basra Airport. Browne promised to show new action on ’security’ in Basra province and to bring Umm Qasr port up to ‘the highest international standards’. (4) What this meant was made clear by Salih who threatened the Governor, people of Basra and port workers’ union of Umm Qasr saying ‘there must be a very strong military presence in Basra to eradicate these militias’. (5)

What Salih, himself a former militia leader, was concerned about were organised port workers who had earlier confronted the American SSA Marine corporation in Umm Qasr and the Danish Maersk corporation in Khor az-Zubair in the two years after these companies were imposed by the occupying forces in 2003. (6) The new plans involve privatisation measures opposed by
the port workers, who are supported by other trade unions and port management. It is likely that the planned corporate takeover of the port is required in order to facilitate the activities of international oil companies.

Nevertheless, the scale of what was afoot was not apparent, but the link between military action and breaking trade unionism was. On March 17-18 the US Vice-President Dick Cheney was in Baghdad meeting with the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki who presently heads the attack on Basra city. (7) Top of the agenda was the oil law (8) and how to insure its passage. The oil law means that international oil majors will control Iraqi oil for many decades.

Various reports reveal that the present carnage was coordinated and agreed with British and American leaders. Naftana believes they commanded it. Why? The tide of national public opinion has turned against long-term troop deployment in both the UK and the USA. If the war was fought for oil and total domination of Iraq, then those most closely associated to those
interests must speed up their plans. The present onslaught aims to break popular resistance, especially from the Sadrist movement, to the passage of the oil law and to the occupation itself. Beyond that, with local elections looming next autumn, it aims to destroy morally and physically the popular base which would otherwise be set to drive, first from local power, and subsequently from national power, the US/UK allies, Nouri al-Maliki (al-Dawa party), his main allies in the Supreme Islamic Council, led by Abdulaziz al-Hakim, and the Kurdish leaders, Talbani and Barzani.

Naftana calls on all who support democratic trade unionism to stand by the people of Iraq, with the port workers of Umm Qasr and the oil workers of Southern Iraq, with workers in Baghdad and many other cities who are in danger of physical elimination.

Naftana For further information on Naftana and IFOU: Sabah Jawad – 07985 336886 sabah.jawad@googlemail.com
Kamil Mahdi – k.a.mahdi@exeter.ac.uk
Sami Ramadani – 07863 138748 sami.ramadani@londonmet.ac.uk

Notes for editors: Naftana (’Our Oil’ in Arabic) is an independent UK-based committee supporting democratic trade unionism in Iraq. It works in solidarity with the IFOU. It strives to publicise the union’s struggle for Iraqi social and economic rights and its stand against the
privatisation of Iraqi oil demanded by the occupying powers. For more information see the IFOU’s website HYPERLINK
“http://www.basraoilunion.org” www.basraoilunion.org

(1) http://www.eeegr.com/events/info.php?refnum=562&startnum=A0

(2) http://www.kpmg.com/Press/KPMGLeaderappointed.htm
(3) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/24/iraq.oil
(4) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7294144.stm
(5)http://www.nytimes.com/2008
/03/13/world/middleeast/13basra.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=iraqi+troops+move+to+seize+control+of+iraqi+port&st=nyt&oref=slogin
(6) Since 2003 the first shortened its name to SSA Marine. See on Umm Qasr:
http://www.allbusiness.com/transportation/marine-transportation-ferries/5665051-1.html

and http://www.publici.net/wow/bio.aspx?act=pro&ddlC=56
and on Khor az-Zubair http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13196
and http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12490
(7) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120593326652748375.html
(8)http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080317082409.1u8it4sf&show_article=1

##

Basra fight takes toll on Iraq oil production and exports…

Published
by
Iraq Oil Report
on March 27, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

Pipelines hit
Workers can’t leave/get to work
A peek at the Basra oil infrastructure
Iraqi military “stalled,” Maliki vows fight “to the end”
Security of late threatened
Bush: Nationalized oil harming Iraq, “legacy” of Saddam
Bush: Losing the Iraq war “endanger” oil in Iraq
U.S. gives $2.5M to train engineers
The Iraq Press Roundup

Oil flow will be affected by the Iraqi army’s crackdown in the oil capital Basra after all, following a pipeline bombing and dangerous conditions for workers.

A pipeline sending crude from key oil fields in Iraq’s south to export terminals was bombed Thursday, and the price of oil jumped by $1 to $105 per barrel, Ben Lando reports for United Press International.

On Tuesday, when the Iraq military action in Basra began, a pipeline feeding a refinery there was also bombed. The Oil Ministry had and still insists oil flow is OK. …

The extent of damage on either of the lines is not known, but United Press International understands exports could be cut from 1.6 million barrels per day to between 800,000 and 1.1 million bpd, and that the Basra Oil Terminal’s pumping rates have been reduced.

Workers in Iraq’s South Oil Co., typically working eight-hour shifts, have been unable to leave or get to work, said Shawna Bader-Blau, Middle East senior program officer for the Solidarity Center, an AFL-CIO affiliate that coordinates directly with Iraq’s workers. …

If the fighting continues, she added, “that’s a big problem in the South Oil Co. because people can’t get to work. How are they going to be able to produce and export oil?”

Meanwhile, Iraq’s Oil Ministry is negotiating oil contracts with the world’s largest oil companies for five fields, some in the southern Iraq firestorm now. …

“Many of the underlying problems in Basra politics will just remain there,” said Reidar Visser, author of “Basra: The Failed Gulf State,” Middle East expert at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and editor of the Web site Historiae.org. “You still have the competition of the governorship, still have the competition of federalism, and still have the competition for resources in the area.”

Read the entire story HERE.

Reuters has details on the Basra area oil infrastructure.

The Iraqi military effort in Basra has “stalled,” James Glanz reports for The New York Times.

Iraq’s U.S.-backed Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki vowed on Thursday security forces would battle Shi’ite militia in Basra “to the end” despite thousands of protesters marching to demand his resignation, Reuters reports in a separate story.

The Real News Network, a new web startup, has this insight into intra-Shiite fighting:

This week’s spike in violence in Baghdad and the southern Iraqi city of Basra raises the prospect that the factors that suppressed Iraq’s bloodshed in recent months could be evaporating simultaneously, Yochi J. Dreazen and Gina Chon report for The Wall Street Journal.

President Bush said Iraq’s nationalized oil sector is a Saddam Hussein “legacy” that is harming Iraq’s economy, and losing the war would “endanger” Iraq’s oil, Ben Lando reports for UPI. “Iraq has great economic potential — they’ve got a young, energetic population, it’s got a lot of natural resources,” Bush said Thursday in a war on terrorism speech in Dayton, Ohio.

A U.S. reconstruction team working in Iraq’s Wasit province gave $2.5M to an engineering college to support Iraq’s need for qualified workers to rebuild the country, UPI reports.

Read Iraq’s editorial pages here: The Iraq Press Roundup by UPI’s Hiba Dawood.

##

Fighting in Iraq’s oil capital Basra isn’t the first bloodshed between varying political and armed groups but may be the decisive battle for control over the oil sector, local government and the fate of the province.

Published
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Iraq Oil Report
on March 26, 2008
in Uncategorized
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The violence that has killed dozens and injured hundreds since Tuesday is billed as Iraq’s military against “criminals, terrorist forces and outlaws,” in the words of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki who this week launched an Iraqi Security Forces offensive into Basra, Ben Lando reports for United Press International.

But political parties and their militias have gained a stronghold in Baghdad and Basra, from elected office to the security forces, police and those protecting the oil infrastructure. And the battle is looking more like two leading political parties against two disenfranchised parties, all Shiite Arab.

“It’s an internal Shiite war for who is going to represent the Shiite community in Iraq,” said Kenneth Katzman, a Middle East expert at the Congressional Research Service. The operation was planned a month ago, he said, and the target was the illegal activity like oil smuggling taking place under the control of the Fadhila Party and other armed groups.

Reidar Visser of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs writes of “The Enigmatic Second Battle of Basra” on his website Historiae.org.

Read more by AlJazeera and McClatchy Newspapers.

Oil production and exports from Iraq’s southern oilfields could be disrupted in three days if workers cannot reach their offices due to fighting in Basra, a Southern Oil Company official told Reuters on Wednesday.

BHP Billiton’s 13-year quest to gain access to the lucrative Halfayah oilfield in Iraq - the project that dragged the company into the Cole inquiry into the UN oil-for-food scandal - could be realised within a few weeks, Jamie Freed reports for The Sydney Morning Herald.Thamir Ghadhban, the energy adviser to Iraq’s Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has said the Government expects to sign a technical support contract covering the Halfayah field and worth about $US500 million ($546 million) by early next month.

Stroytransgaz, one of Russia’s largest engineering and construction companies, and Iraq’s North Oil Company held another round of talks on reconstructing an oil pipeline in Iraq, RIA Novosti reports. The Kirkuk-Baniyas pipeline designed to transport crude from north Iraqi fields to the Syrian port of Baniyas, was destroyed by the U.S. Air Force during an invasion of the Middle East country in 2003.

The Kurdistan Regional Government’s oil ministry is hiring. The Ministry of Natural Resources is looking for to advisers to the ministry itself, as well as to the Kurdistan National Oil Company (KNOC), a Kurdistan Exploration and Production Company (KEPCO), and a Kurdistan Organisation for Downstream Operations (KODO), according to a KRG statement.

A look at Iraq’s editorial pages by UPI’s Hiba Dawood.

A federal investigation of Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, and his deputy has accelerated, with prosecutors recently questioning seven current and former employees of the office before a grand jury in Richmond, Va., according to sources, Dan Friedman reports for CongressDaily. They said witnesses include a former deputy inspector general and chief of staff, as well as a lower-level information technology specialist, all of whom appeared March 19. Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia, which heads the investigation, and FBI officials assisting the inquiry declined to comment due to the secrecy of grand jury proceedings. But the investigation appears to remain focused on allegations that Bowen, a former White House lawyer who has served in his current post since 2004, and his deputy, Ginger Cruz, illegally read office e-mails of their staff.
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Iraq oil exports and revenue up, but production is down…

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Plus:
*Fighting in Basra, Iraq’s oil capital
*Oil flow not affected, ministry says
*Likely outcome troubling for violence and politics
*Chevron ready for Iraq deals
*Lukoil says West Qurna progress
*Workers poisoned at water plant needed for oil sector
*CS Monitor marks Five Years in Iraq
*Turkey vs. Kurds in … Basra?
*Iraq’s female detainees show deep problems

Iraq’s oil exports have increased in recent months, boosting state income, but overall oil production has dropped, according to Oil Ministry data. The slowdown is likely due to a perfect storm of accidents, insurgents and a lack of electricity and fuels.

Iraq exported 1.82 million barrels per day in December, according to data published on the ministry’s Web site, Ben Lando reports for United Press International. That increased to 1.92 million bpd in January and 1.93 million bpd last month — $5 billion in oil revenue for February using the ministry averaged crude price at $89.79 per barrel. …

Separate documents detailing December and January overall production show it dropping from nearly 2.3 million bpd to just under 2.1 million bpd. Supply to refineries and power plants also declined.

The New Year saw fires at Iraq’s main refineries and insurgent attacks on power lines, both of which negatively affect the ability to produce crude. And with upward momentum in production already, more crude was directed out of the country, as Iraqis languished in an ongoing shortage of fuels and electricity.

Oil production and exports from Iraq’s southern oil hub of Basra were unaffected by heavy fighting between Iraqi police and armed groups, Randy Fabi and Ahmed Rasheed report for Reuters.

Basra is or is near 80 percent of Iraq’s production and where 90 percent of exports head to market. It also is heavily influenced by Iran, religious fundamentalism, smuggling and other gang activity, and the militias and politics of key parties – Fadhila, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (which is trying to take power and control over the oil from Fadhila), and the Sadr Movement.

The Shiite city has been torn by fighting among parties and militias that are competing to control the south’s oil reserves. A security plan includes a curfew and ban on incoming cars, Ned Parker and Saif Hameed report for the Los Angeles Times. Prime Minister Nouri Maliki visited Basra on Monday in preparation for a new security crackdown in the troubled Shiite Muslim city.

Meanwhile Moqtada al-Sadr is shutting down commerce in protest in his strongholds in Baghdad, Leila Fadel and Nancy A. Youssef report for McClatchy Newspapers, and could end his Mahdi Army’s ceasefire which Washington has partially credited for the increase in security in Iraq.

This is why oil prices turned around a three day reprieve, Alexander Kwiatkowski reports for Bloomberg News.

In a separate piece, Reuters has a FAQ on Basra.

Chevron Corp. and other international oil companies are negotiating with the Iraq Ministry of Oil to begin tapping into some of the country’s largest oil fields, according to published reports, David R. Baker reports for The San Francisco Chronicle.

Russian firm Lukoil is claiming partial victory in its struggle for a Saddam-era oil deal during a CEO visit to Iraq and lobbying by President Vladimir Putin, UPI reports. The Iraqi government, however, hasn’t signaled a reversal of opinion that the deal was canceled prior to Saddam’s overthrow, thus no longer valid.

When the American team arrived in Iraq in the summer of 2003 to repair the Qarmat Ali water injection plant, supervisors told them the orange, sand-like substance strewn around the looted facility was just a “mild irritant,” workers recall. The workers got it on their hands and clothing every day while racing for 2 1/2 months to meet a deadline to get the plant, a crucial part of Iraq’s oil infrastructure, up and running, Farah Stockman reports for The Boston Globe.

But the chemical turned out to be sodium dichromate, a substance so dangerous that even limited exposure greatly increases the risk of cancer. Soon, many of the 22 Americans and 100-plus Iraqis began to complain of nosebleeds, ulcers, and shortness of breath. Within weeks, nearly 60 percent exhibited symptoms of exposure, according to the minutes of a meeting of project managers from KBR, the Houston-based construction company in charge of the repairs.

Security, Society & Politics

In Iraq, jailed women tell of abuse. Some don’t know why they were arrested, and many are held for months without seeing a judge. Justice officials deny the accusations, but evidence points to deep-rooted problems, Kimi Yoshino reports for the Los Angeles Times. Nearly 200 women, some with their toddlers and infants living with them in their cells, are imprisoned in Baghdad’s only detention facility for women. Suspected killers bunk with women charged with petty crimes.

On the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, progress is slow but violence is down. A three-part series on the war’s effects starts with a look at what the endgame might look like. Five Years In Iraq, a major multimedia series by the staff at The Christian Science Monitor. A must read/view/listen.

A top Turkish envoy was dispatched to Iraq yesterday to finalize Ankara’s bid to open a consulate in the southern city of Basra, in an effort to strengthen Turkey’s ties with Shiite groups that comprise around 65 percent of Iraq’s population, Serkan Demirtas reports for the Turkish Daily News.

US President George W. Bush has officially invited Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani to visit the US capital, news reports posted from Arbil following US Vice President Dick Cheney’s visit to the region have said, Today’s Zaman reports.
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Iraq announces tenders for Iraq-Iran pipelines, Akkas gas field and testing of Kirkuk and Rumaila

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Plus:
*Putin’s plea for Iraq oil deals during Lukoil CEO’s visit
*The power struggle
*Basra violence get Maliki visit

Iraq announced tenders for international oil companies to test two of its largest oil fields, develop a major natural gas field and build a pipeline to Iran, Ben Lando reports for UPI. The four tenders, revealed on the Oil Ministry Web site, are part of the country’s larger effort to increase oil production and exports while meeting domestic demand.

Russian President Putin presses Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to revive an old oil deal as the head of Lukoil visits Baghdad, Ahmed Rasheed and Dmitry Zhdannikov report for Reuters. In a letter, Putin wants Iraq to give Lukoil the development deal for the West Qurna oil field. Lukoil held the contract from the late 1990s until 2002 when it was cancelled. Saddam’s government said the company was behind on promised investment, thus violating the deal. Lukoil claims sanctions prevented investment in the 6 billion barrel field.

Putin also proposed Russian investment on a pipeline from Kirkuk to Syria, Lucian Kim reports for Bloomberg News. Lukoil CEO Vagit Alekperov led a delegation to Iraq, meeting with the foreign minister, president and oil ministry. Total and Chevron are in talks with the ministry for a two-year technical support agreement for the field. Then the field will be up for bidding for longer term development, according to the ministry. It says Lukoil would have to bid like other companies and would not get preferential treatment. Last month Russia agreed to forgive $12 billion in debt, long held over Baghdad’s head, in a move appearing to be a plea for energy deals.

Who controls Iraq’s oil?, a report by Faisal Islam of UK’s Channel 4 News.

A different kind of power struggle in Iraq: Most residents get only a few hours of electricity a day. In a reversal of the old days, the problem is stickiest in Baghdad, Alexandra Zavis reports for the Los Angeles Times. Baghdad is receiving only a few hours per day, down from the pre-war levels when Saddam directed electricity generated around the country to his stronghold capital. Zavis writes it’s the current government’s prerogative to equally distribute the electricity around the country — a few hours per day, at best. That actually dates back to the Coalition Provisional Authority’s decision to attempt to appear fair. However, Baghdadis used to 20 hours a day under Saddam were and are none too happy about such a dramatic reduction under the post-Saddam governments.

A number of U.S.-planned, led and paid for (sometimes with Iraqi funds) power projects weren’t able to integrate with Iraq’s power system for a number of reasons: lacking infrastructure to carry the proper fuel to the plant or large amounts of electricity into the grid; not enough funding for training and upkeep of the state of the art plant; and of course, the security situation. While U.S. and Iraqi efforts have increased power producing capacity – and have set record output levels despite obstacles – demand has increased, largely because of the influx of cheap but energy intensive products like the washing machine of Khitam Radi in Zavis’ story. This is also a result of post-invasion decision making by the United States. After the invasion Iraq’s borders were thrown open to the free market. Iraqis forced to use mainly products made in state industries purchased the products out of necessity and curiosity, reducing demand for the state factories (which were hurting and largely shuttered by the war) and depressing prices, which hurt the economy.

Iraq’s prime minister joins defense and interior ministers in oil capital Basra as increased violence leads to new government investment of troops, Wisam Mohammed reports for Reuters.

Iranian artillery shelled three border towns in northern Iraq where Iranian Kurdish rebels are believed to be operating, an Iraqi Kurdish official said Sunday, The Associated Press reports. Meanwhile, hundreds of Kurdish protesters lobbed stones at police and soldiers in southeastern Turkey in a fourth straight day of clashes that have killed two people and injured dozens.
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Basra the battleground for Iraq army effort…

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Iraq’s Army will target militias in Iraq’s oil capital Basra in a last ditch effort to route the growing violence before provincial elections which may take place this fall, Kim Sengupta reports for The Independent.

This poses a huge dilemma for citizens and the country. Who exactly of the dozens of militias will the Army target — the random and/or organized street gangs, the religious fundamentalists that pack heavy weaponry, those armed fighters loyal to the ruling political parties in Baghdad, those militias loyal to the political parties that oppose the ruling parties in Baghdad?

The Army has attempted to quell violence in Basra before, with about as much luck as the British had in stopping the armed groups from taking hold of the key province and capital city in the first place.

Suspicious eyes would do well to look at the local politics, which pits the Basra-ruling Fadhila Party against the Baghdad-dominating Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, or the latter against the Sadr Movement party. And next month provinces in Iraq can form regions like Iraqi Kurdistan. ISCI has already said it wants to envelope Basra in a massive region.

He — because the fundamentalists in the parties will not let women anywhere near the leadership role — who controls the oil…

It was June 2004, about a month after I had arrived in Iraq for the first time. It was my second night in Basra, and I’d never been so sick in my life, The New York Times’ James Glanz writes about his introduction to Iraq’s reconstruction. He explains how he found the state of disrepair, and the quality of repairs that keeps Iraq’s oil sector sick to this day. He does gloss over, however, the fact that many of the problems faced as reconstruction began — “Oil pipelines burst after they were repaired; canals ruptured again and again when the pumping stations pushing fresh drinking water through them were fixed; ancient power stations with control rooms out of ‘’Das Boot’’ shorted out and went dark no matter how many times flabbergasted American engineers tinkered with the turbines.” — were the result of U.S. “planning” and “executing” the “reconstruction,” not Iraqi inability. (See: “Blood Money: Wasted Billions, Lost Lives and Corporate Greed in Iraq” by Los Angeles Times’ former Iraq reconstruction reporter T. Christian Miller. (Editor’s note: not meant as a dis on Glanz’s excellent Iraq reporting.)

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A look into Shell and other oil firms’ angling into Iraqi oil and gas deals…

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Plus:
*Electricity Ministry official assassinated
*Iraq, Oil and The Washington Post
*The Betrayal of Judge Radhi
*Basra police bust women assassin’s ring
*Kuwait to Iraq: debt relief for water
*Iraq Five Years of War: continuing coverage
*Much, much more…

Royal Dutch Shell has been quietly working with Iraq’s oil ministry over the past two years, advising it on how to increase the production of two oilfields, Roula Khalaf and Steve Negus write in an excellent Financial Times article.

Under an agreement struck after the 2003 invasion, no one from the company, Europe’s largest oil group, has set foot in the troubled country; instead, monthly face-to-face meetings with the oil ministry have been held in Amman, the Jordanian capital, and weekly contact has been maintained by video-link.

With parts of the global oil industry threatened with nationalisation and much of the Middle East still closed to foreign ownership of reserves, access to Iraq, with the world’s third-largest oil reserves, has long been viewed as a huge prize. Although no decision has yet been made in Baghdad over the nature of the development or the eventual exploration contracts that will be on offer, Iraq could prove one of the rare countries in the region where companies will be allowed to claim reserves as their own. “This is the big frontier,” says Raad Alkadiri, a senior director at Washington-based PFC Energy.

Unknown gunmen abducted a senior official of the Iraq Electricity Ministry near a town in Salahudin province, a provincial police source said on Thursday, the Xinhua news agency reports.

It seems appropriate to spend a moment reflecting on the road not taken, at least in terms of its energy aspects, blogs energy and strategy consultant Geoffrey Styles. This week marks the fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq War as the outcome of November’s US presidential election hinging at least in part on the judgment to go to war in 2003 and a book by a Nobel-winning economist assessing the cost of the war is released. Although we will never know what would have ultimately happened, had the US decided not to invade Iraq, we can make some educated guesses about the level of oil prices in such a world. Just as the war itself cannot properly be characterized as a war for oil–though it has certainly been about oil–today’s oil price of $110 per barrel reflects the results of that decision, though it has not been directly caused by it.

In gauging the impact of the Iraq War on oil prices, we need to evaluate two broad areas: the relative importance of Iraqi under-production, compared to all the other factors that have contributed to oil’s dramatic rise from the mid-$20s per barrel, and the nature of Iraq’s status quo ante, with regard to oil. Let’s start with the latter, since after five years of war, most commentators have forgotten about the way that Saddam Hussein’s behavior regularly roiled the market.

Iraq’s Oil Ministry has signed a contract with the Colorado Industrial Construction Services Co. to help expand a refinery in Najaf, south of Baghdad, The Associated Press reports. The US$85 million contract is designed to increase the refinery’s current production of 20,000 barrels of oil per day by roughly 10,000 barrels per day, a senior ministry official said.

Iraq, Oil and The Washington Post: Steven Mufson follows up his article, A Crude Case for War?, with a Q & A with readers. The Post also publishes a response/analysis of Mufson’s piece by Harper’s Magazine senior editor Luke Mitchell.

Security, Society & Politics

The Betrayal of Judge Radhi: How America turned its back on its top fraud cop in Iraq, a profile by Christopher S. Stewart in the Conde Nast Portfolio of the former U.S.-picked Iraqi judge charged with finding Iraqi corruption and, incidentally, he found American contracting graft as well. He soon became a target of the Iraqi government and militias, accused of corruption himself, and is struggling to be approved for asylum here in the U.S.

Basra police say they captured a gang responsible for serial murders of women, Abed Battat reports for Azzaman.

The Kuwaiti delegation participating in the Arab Parliamentary Union Conference, which concluded its work in Arbil last Friday, said it had an idea of dropping his country’s debt on Iraq in return for providing it with Shatt al-Arab water surplus.

A member of Iraq’s Presidency Council, whose objections had blocked a law calling for provincial elections by October, withdrew his objections on Wednesday in a sudden turnaround that raised hopes for long-sought political progress, Erica Goode and Richard A. Oppel Jr. report for The New York Times.

This refers to the provincial powers law – which is not an election law but a law establishing the authorities of the provinces and includes mention of a future election – which was initially approved along with two other laws, as United Press International’s Ben Lando reported in February.

The U.N.’s Antonio Maria Costa asked the Government of Iraq to implement the United Nations Convention against Corruption without delay, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said in a statement.

How Technology Almost Lost the War: In Iraq, the Critical Networks Are Social — Not Electronic, Noah Shachtman reports for Wired.

Five Years in Iraq coverage

Through their eyes, CNN’s Arwa Damon tells us how she managed to show us the world of Iraqi women through their own eyes. After watching this, a good read would be Iraq Progress Misses Women, by UPI’s Ben Lando.

Bearing Witness: Five Years of the Iraq War, a well-documented multimedia recap by the great team at Reuters.

Hidden Iraq: Jon Snow of Britain’s Channel 4 examines the brutal reality of life inside post-invasion Iraq, meeting a variety of its citizens from victims of bomb blasts and war widows to human rights activists and politicians.

Iraq and the EU: five years on, by Renata Goldirova in the EU Observer.

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Gen. Petraeus recruits world’s largest energy companies on behalf of Prime Minister Maliki …

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Plus:
*Shell responds to activist letter: increased profits not directly tied to Iraq war
*Iraq oil official confirms $2.5B for two-year deals with Big Oil
*Iraq oil, 5 years later
*Iraq Oil Ministry officials in New Orleans to observe MMS sale
*Iraq museum won’t open when repaired; smuggling artifacts funds insurgency
*Much, much more…

Gen. David Petraeus is calling on “large Western corporations” to invest in Iraq’s energy sector as Iraq looks outside to boost oil, gas and power production, Ben Lando reports for United Press International.

Petraeus, who as commander of Multi-National Force-Iraq overseas all coalition troops there, said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki asked him to convey the message to companies. …
Petraeus’ spokesman would not tell United Press International which companies the general had called.

“We have made some initial inquiries on (Iraq’s) behalf,” said U.S. Army Col. Steven Boylan. “Rest assured it would be companies that have the capability and reach to take on projects of the size and scope that Iraq needs to continue to progress forward.” …

“Sometimes to get the ball rolling it takes a senior leader to engage other senior leaders in the corporate world to have a discussion” on the realities of security in Iraq, Boylan said. Boylan added it’s part of the U.S. effort to help Iraq’s government build its capacity. He said the level of security for these companies depends on the area of the country. …

CLICK HERE to read the entire story.

Shell has rejected accusations the increased price of oil, and thus profits, can be linked directly to the Iraq war, Ben Lando reports for UPI. In a letter to the advocacy group Consumers for Peace, the company also said it won’t transfer the so-called war profits to a special fund as the organization requested.

The Iraqi government is expected to pay up to $2.5 billion to five top oil companies to increase the country’s oil output by nearly a quarter, Randi Fabi and Ahmed Rasheed report for Reuters. Thamir Ghadhban, energy adviser to Iraq’s prime minister, said he expected the contracts, which would add 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) to current production of 2.27 million bpd, would be signed by early next month.”There is a rough estimate that it could cost about $400 to $500 million per field,” he said in an interview. “So a total could be up to between $2 (billion) and $2.5 billion over two years that should be paid by the government to companies.”

Regular Iraq Oil Report readers, I should point out, knew about this Monday when UPI’s Ben Lando reported a top State Dept. official confirmed the $2.5B in the budget. He also said the oil law is technically finished but held up by politics, and that Production Sharing Agreements will be signed for long term deals. An Iraqi Iraq oil expert sent Iraq Oil Report an email that Amb. Ries’ PSA predictions are grounded in anything but reality on the ground and below it.

Five years after the U.S.-led invasion, Iraq’s oil sector is at last pumping at the level it managed under Saddam Hussein, but it could take years to make further progress, Ahmed Rasheed and Simon Webb report for Reuters.

The 12th ministerial meeting of the countries of the Arab electric interconnection network, which comprises Libya, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq started on Tuesday in Tripoli, Afriquenligne reports. The body aims at following up the development of the electricity connection between the national grids of these countries and ways and means of promoting and consolidating exchanges through the connection of electricity lines of the parties concerned.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has asked a consortium of Korean builders, which is now conducting a social infrastructure construction project coupled with oil exploration in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, to participate in similar projects in southern Iraq, a legal advisor to the consortium said, the JoongAng Daily reports. Meanwhile, Korean builder SSangyong Engineering & Construction Co. said Tuesday (Mar. 18) that a consortium led by the builder plans to submit its proposals to build infrastructure to the Kurdistan Regional Government early next month, Korea.net News reports.

United Nations envoy likened the struggle between Kurds and Arabs for control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq to a “ticking time bomb,” Caroline Tosh and Zaineb Ahmed report for the Institute for War & Peace Reporting. Analysts say political agreement must be reached to defuse escalating tensions over contested city’s status.

Iraq would need to pass its long-delayed oil and gas law to attract much-needed funds to enhance its oil industry, a Turkish company with oil investments in northern Iraq said Wednesday, Dow Jones Newswires reports.Orhan Duran, the general manager of Turkey’s Genel Enerji, said the Cukurova Group-owned company has invested nearly $200 million to drill six wells in a joint effort with Geneva-based Addax Petroleum. There is enough oil to make the venture profitable, but the oil cannot be exported before the central government passes the oil and gas law, Duran said.

Four officials of Iraq’s oil ministry are in New Orleans for an auction of federal offshore petroleum leases, the AP reports. The officials came to Wednesday’s sale of leases in the eastern Gulf of Mexico as part of a long-term effort for Iraq to improve management of its oil resources.

Society, Security & Politics

If you go to the trouble of organizing an Iraqi political reconciliation conference, it’s generally a bad sign if a number of key players don’t even show up, Paul Kiel writes for TPM Muckraker. The largest Sunni bloc, former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi’s party, and a prominent minority party of Shiites and Sunnis all boycotted the conference. No representatives of the insurgency (either Baathist or militia members) were there. Supporters of Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr walked out of the conference, as did a prominent Sunni tribal leader who’s been key to the so-called “Anbar Awakening.”

So why, exactly, did the U.S. invade Iraq five years ago this week? asks Jim Lobe of Inter Press Service.

The U.S. military’s use of organic forces in Iraq gives a sense of Iraqi solutions to Iraqi problems, but may also be a sign of a partnership of convenience, writes UPI’s Daniel Graeber.

Politics is a dirty business anywhere in the world, but Iraqi politics today rank among the most divisive. While much has been written about Iraq since 2003 — the early mistakes that continue to impede progress, the bitter rivalries that leave so many innocents dead, the roles of superpowers and neighbors — few observers have offered a far-sighted view of the state of affairs, Kathleen Ridolfo writes for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

The Kurdistan Regional Government is touting the visit by Vice President Cheney as a major step for the region.

Iraq’s National Museum, which has been closed since its antiquities were looted five years ago after the U.S.-led invasion, won’t reopen when a partial renovation is complete in a few months, Elena Becatoros reports for The Associated Press. Museum and government officials say the museum building will not be ready and they fear opening the collection to the public could draw attacks or renewed looting. In a separate article Becatoros writes smuggling is funding insurgent groups.

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U.S. economic chief in Iraq: Oil law stalled by politics, not technical, but Iraq has $2.5B for short term plan and PSAs for long term…

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Plus:
*Iraq oil fuels insurgency, funds militias, corruption
*Baiji refinery power outage; Najaf refinery doubled
*Iraq 5 years after invasion
*Baghdad ballet school open
*Basra development board meets in Kuwait
*Winter Soldier

Iraq’s oil law debate is political, not technical, a top U.S. official said, adding Iraq has tagged billions of dollars to boost oil production regardless, Ben Lando reports for United Press International.

Charles Ries, U.S. State Department minister for economic affairs and coordinator for economic transition in Iraq, said the proposed law isn’t necessary for Iraq to produce oil “but it would clearly be much, much better and incentivize private investment to help Iraq produce more if a bill would pass.”

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney is in Iraq Monday and said he’s pressing Iraqi leaders to move the controversial legislation forward.

Ries said Iraq has set aside $2.5 billion for Technical Support Agreements over the next two years. TSAs, being negotiated with BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron and Total, would see a transfer of technology, expertise and training to Iraq’s oil sector.

Further down the road, Ries said Iraq will sign production-sharing agreements to develop areas not currently producing. …

Read Ben Lando’s entire article HERE.

Iraq’s insurgency runs on stolen oil profits, Richard A. Oppel Jr. writes for The New York Times, a tale of Iraq’s largest refinery, an unaccountable oil flow, and frustrating corruption.

Sky-high oil prices are pumping tens of billions of dollars into Iraq’s coffers, reaping a windfall for a war-torn nation plagued by unpassable roads, dilapidated hospitals and crumbling schools, Gina Chon reports for The Wall Street Journal. Yet most of this desperately needed cash is languishing in the bank. The reason: Iraq’s government is so ill-equipped to handle the basics of finance, it is having trouble spending the money.

For more, see Iraq a Target for U.S. Spending by UPI’s Ben Lando.

A brief power outage idled Iraq’s largest oil refinery Sunday, an official with the nation’s oil ministry said, Sinan Salaheddin reports for The Associated Press.The disruption lasted five hours and was the third major production stoppage since January at the facility in Beiji, about 155 miles north of Baghdad.

Iraq has doubled the production capacity in its Najaf refinery, which, though a small facility, will help Iraqis facing massive fuel shortages, UPI reports.

Investors grab slice of oil-rich region, Financial Times Iraq Correspondent Steve Negus reports on the Khanzad American Village housing community in Irbil.

Iraq War – The 5-year mark

Iraq, 5 years and gaffes later, a review of mishaps and missteps by UPI Contributing Editor Claude Salhani.

The New York Times recapped the Iraq war with nine experts – all of whom supported the war in the first place, according to Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting.

Five years after the US-led invasion, Iraq faces a major humanitarian crisis, with law and order and economic recovery a distant prospect, international aid and human rights groups said, Agence France-Presse reports.

When President Bush convened a meeting of his National Security Council on May 22, 2003, his special envoy in Iraq made a statement that caught many of the participants by surprise. In a video presentation from Baghdad, L. Paul Bremer III informed the president and his aides that he was about to issue an order formally dissolving Iraq’s Army, Michael R. Gordon reports for The New York Times.

The decree was issued the next day. But with the fifth anniversary of the start of the war approaching, some participants have provided in interviews their first detailed, on-the-record accounts of a decision that is widely seen as one of the most momentous and contentious of the war, assailed by critics as all but ensuring that American forces would face a growing insurgency led by embittered Sunnis who led much of the army.

The Institute for Policy Studies’ Foreign Policy in Focus has a roundup as well.

Security, Society & Politics

At the Baghdad School of Music and Ballet, near the Mansour district, a handful of 6-year-old beginners attempt the plié stance: Two little girls in pink leotards and bunned hair, four boys in white T-shirts and black shorts, Melik Kaylan reports for The Wall Street Journal. In a conflict zone, you train your emotions to resist all kinds of horrors and suddenly you can be unmanned by an unexpected moment of grace.

More than 2,000 delegates comprising Sunni and Shiite Arabs inhabiting the disputed Province of Kirkuk held a conference on Sunday to express their opposition to a Kurdish move to annex the province to their semi-independent entity in northern Iraq, Azzaman reports.

Basra Development Committee held its first conference in Kuwait, Alsumaria TV reports.

The U.N. agency in charge of overseeing procurement services unveiled 75 new projects by Iraqi non-profit groups working on an electoral education campaign, UPI reports.

The Iraq Press Roundup, by UPI’s Hiba Dawood.

Winter Soldier

Veterans and active duty U.S. military in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, following in the footsteps of Vietnam veterans and the prompted by Thomas Paine’s 1776 writing: “The summer soldier and sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country,” went public with human rights abuses they witnessed or participated in, the lack of care given to emotional trauma of war on fighters, the racism of war, and how it will be U.S. troops themselves that will bring the war to an end.

The three-day event was sponsored by Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Below are some links to full coverage, but I’ll share some of the testimony that struck me silent, apologies for the rough notes:

A medic in the Iowa National Guard, at Abu Ghraib, said he was ordered not to transport a detainee needing insulin to the hospital, not to give him insulin, only water. He died.

Specialist Mike Prysner was at Abu Ghraib interrogations. One detainee, he said, was injured in his leg so bad, but was forced to stand and face a wall as Prysner’s superior yelled questions at him and Prysner was to slam a folding chair against the wall next to his head. After awhile the superior left and Prysner was to ensure the detainee kept standing with a face against the wall. But Prysner let him sit and hurried him to his feet when someone was coming.

“I was supposed to be protecting my unit from this detainee, but I found myself guarding this detainee from my unit.”
Vet in a SuitTestimony from the Iraq Veterans Against the War, by Anthony Swofford in Slate. Swofford is the author of Jarhead.

Here’s coverage by
Alternet

Democracy Now!

Washington Post

Inter Press Service

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