Plus:
*Confusion remains over first bidding round as round 2 announced
*Heritage spuds in KRG
*U.S. pressing for extension of immunity for Iraq oil revenue
*Paris Club makes good on forgiving last 20 percent
*Basra: U.S. troops in, elections coming, federal state fight looms
*Women’s rights leader beheaded in Kirkuk
*Alive in Baghdad: Journalists Still at Risk in Iraq
*Shoe-throwing Zaidi update
*Much, much more…

Iraqi oil exports increased last month to 1.76 million barrels per day as the price for oil continued to fall, according to data from the Iraqi Oil Ministry. Oil exported from the southern terminals in the Persian Gulf shouldered the output boost, Ben Lando reports for United Press International.

The uptick in exports is needed more than ever. Iraq’s oil fetched an average $43.54 per barrel in November — a 26-percent drop since October and a long way from June’s $122 per barrel price tag. Despite increasing output month-on-month, Iraqi oil sales were $2.29 billion in November and $3.11 billion in October.

While Iraq is readying to outline a second round of bidding giving international oil firms a chance to develop oil and gas fields, concerns remain over the first round, which commenced in full this October.

Development deals for two undeveloped gas fields and six of Iraq’s largest operating oil fields are to be signed by mid 2009, according to the Oil Ministry’s plans. But with information still trickling in from the ministry to interested oil companies, many questions remain.

Executives told Iraq Oil Report on condition of anonymity that they aren’t convinced the terms will be worth the risk and investment, and they have many questions to fully understand the investment strategy pursued by the ministry.

“Iraq’s latest draft model contract for its first postwar bid round, recently made available to participating firms, has failed to bridge the gap between the oil ministry and international oil companies,” Ruba Husari writes for Energy Intelligence. “The two sides may struggle to narrow their differences in the short time frame announced by Baghdad, which aims to publish the final technical service contract by April 2009 and award contracts by the summer.”

The Oil Ministry sees this route as the way to meeting goals of 6 million barrels per day production in 10 years. On Dec. 29 the Oil Ministry will host a conference at its Baghdad headquarters to announce details of the second round, Ahmed Rasheed reports for Reuters. It is expected to include another 13 or 14 oil fields.

This is a statement from the Oil Ministry:

The Ministry of Oil
Petroleum Contracts and Licensing Directorate
The Second Bidding Round Announcement Conference
With the attendance of H.E. the Minister of Oil, Dr. Hussain Al-Shahristani, the Ministry of Oil will hold a media conference to announce the second Bidding Round, where the petroleum fields, that the Ministry intends to develop in cooperation with the pre-qualified International Oil Companies, will be announced. The conference will be held in The Ministry of Oil building at: 11:00 AM on Wednesday, Dec.31th, 2008.
The Ministry of Oil invites the authorized representatives of the International Oil Companies in Iraq to attend this conference after being registered. The International, Arab and Iraqi media representatives are welcomed to cover this conference.

Heritage Oil Limited has commenced drilling the Miran West-1 well in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. This is the first exploration well to be drilled on the highly prospective Miran license, according to a company statement.

The United States circulated a U.N. resolution that would shield billions of dollars of Iraqi assets from legal actions after the mandate for the U.S.-led multinational force ends, U.N. diplomats said, Edith M. Lederer reports for The Associated Press. The draft resolution would extend for one year the arrangements under the U.N. mandate for the American-led multinational force in Iraq, which expires Dec. 31. Similar legal protection under an executive order signed by President George W. Bush expires in May, and Iraq is expected to seek an extension of that order as well.

The Paris Club group of Iraq creditors – i.e. those who helped fund Saddam Hussein – forgave the new Iraq government a final 20 percent of its debt, worth $7.8 billion. In all, the creditors forgave 80 percent of the combined debt, with only 20 percent for Iraq to pay, according to a PC statement.

Paris Club creditors consider that the Government of Iraq has made its best efforts to seek comparable treatment from all its other external creditors, with the conclusion of comparable debt treatments with 58 out of 73 Iraq’s sovereign creditors. Paris Club creditors urge the remaining 15 creditors of Iraq to follow suit.

American troops will move into southern Iraq early next year to replace departing British forces, the top U.S. general in Iraq said. Britain says its 4,000 troops will withdraw from the southern city of Basra by the end of May. Army Gen. Ray Odierno, the overall commander of U.S. and allied forces in Iraq, said in an interview with The Associated Press’ Chelsea J. Carter late Saturday that he is considering moving either a brigade or division headquarters — about 100 personnel — as well as an undetermined number of combat troops to Iraq’s second-largest city.

With provincial elections six weeks away, the electoral – and assumed physical – fight over the oil capital Basra, among other places, will be key to watch. Reidar Visser writes in historiae.org that the names of individual candidates for provincial elections have finally been released, and he takes an in-depth look at Basra.

Basil Adas reporting for Gulf News has the latest on the Basra federalism debate.

Nahla Hussein al-Shaly – the latest victim of Iraq’s increasingly anti-women culture. Shaly worked for the Kurdistan Women’s League until Dec. 18, when she was attacked in her Kirkuk home and beheaded.

The story has received little attention. Yahya Barzanji reported it in The Associated Press. This has been followed by a condemnation from the head of the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq, Staffan de Mistura, and details of her work in an Indy Media recap.

For the situation of women in Iraq, see this two items from earlier this year, which are unfortunately still timely:

July 6: Rise of Islamic extremism erodes women’s rights: Winning (and losing) in Iraq, by Ben Lando in The Washington Times

March 14: Iraq progress missing women, by Ben Lando for United Press International.

Iraqi officials say they intend to expel members of an Iranian exile group living in a camp north of Baghdad that is protected by the U.S. military. The expulsion, which the Shiite-led government has long sought, is expected to become feasible once the U.N. mandate that regulates the presence of U.S. troops — and which gave the Iranian opposition group protected status — expires at the end of the year, Ernesto Londoño reports for The Washington Post.

Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie on Saturday traveled to the camp with several other government officials to deliver the message to members of the Mujaheddin-e Khalq, or MEK, an Iranian opposition group that was closely aligned with deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein but has been under U.S. military protection since shortly after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

At Iraqi border outpost, signs of improving ties with Iran: As US forces pull back, Iran is expected to widen its influence in Iraq, despite the two countries’ history of war and mistrust, Scott Peterson reports for The Christian Science Monitor. Iraq’s Shiite-led government has close ties with the rulers of Iran, where many current leaders spent years living in exile. And despite a war between Iran and Iraq that left 1 million dead or wounded, Iran’s influence here is only growing and set to increase as US forces begin to pull back.

Major businesses have lined up billions of dollars for investment in southern Iraq, where oil riches and long-term opportunities beckon, preparing to move in even as Britain prepares to pull its troops out, Luke Baker reports for Reuters. Foreign investors have earmarked more than $9 billion for the oil-hub of Basra and the region around it in the next three years, according to Michael Wareing, the co-chair of the Basra Development Commission, a British-Iraqi group, and up to three times as much could be invested in the next five to 10 years.

Alive in Baghdad: Journalists Still At Risk in Iraq

Just over a year ago, Ali Shafeya Al-Moussawi, a journalist and correspondent for Alive in Baghdad, received a knock at his door. It was just after 11:30 at night, outside Ali was greeted with an Iraqi National Guard convoy. Hearing gunshots, Ali’s neighbors frantically tried to reach him by phone, to no avail. When his cousin Amar finally arrived a few hours later, Ali was dead, shot to death in his own living room. Horace Greeley once wrote that “journalism will kill you, but it will keep you alive while you’re at it.” No one understands this twisted fate more than the journalists of Iraq.

The Iraqi reporter who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush and called him a “dog” will stand trial on December 31, a court official said, Ahmed Rasheed reports for Reuters. TV journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi is charged with “assaulting a foreign head of state visiting Iraq,” said Abdul Satar Birqadr, spokesman for Iraq’s High Judicial Council.

Zaidi was burned by a cigarette in the hours after his arrest on Dec. 14 and was beaten so badly by Iraqi security personnel that one of his teeth was knocked out, the reporter’s brother said Sunday after a visit to the jail, Timothy Williams reports for The New York Times.

Obama should worry about Iraqi shoes, too: When Iraq’s violence escalates, President Obama better not be caught on his heels when he’s blamed for losing Bush’s “win,” Ben Lando writes for Alternet.

Iraqi farmers are back in business, and Iraqis love local produce, Adam Ashton reports for McClatchy Newspapers.

Mansour Abdul Khadim’s mix of winter crops gives every impression of abundance, despite the double threat of drought and violence that has plagued Iraqi agriculture since Saddam Hussein’s fall in 2003.

Rows of red potatoes and green beans grow together in one lot. Winter wheat sprouts in adjacent fields. Tomatoes for the spring already are incubating in mounds of fertilizer. … “I am not restrained by any government condition. I am free to use the land the way I want it,” said Khadim, 37, whose family has farmed in this rural area south of Baghdad for decades.

Khadim’s taking advantage of a drop in violence to rebuild decrepit canals and boost his farm’s production as part of a 700-member agricultural cooperative. He’s part of a trend that many hope will increase across the country, bolster employment and restore Iraq’s status as an historic breadbasket for the Middle East.

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