Plus:
*Iraq stops auctions, starts term contracts for Kirkuk oil
*Iraq oil flow north to Turkey stopped, storage capacity blamed
*One of three major Iraq refineries working
*Oil Ministry reaffirms blockade of firms who sign with Kurds
*Fight for Mosul escalates
*Political tensions mount
*Much more…

Turkey has launched a feasibility study for a natural gas pipeline connecting northern Iraq’s fields to the Turkish port, parallel to the oil pipelines. Iraq has large natural gas reserves but the sector is undeveloped, with much of the associated gas burned with nowhere to go. United Press International reports Turkey is eyeing Iraq’s gas as it further solidifies its role as a main transport hub for the world’s hydrocarbons.

Iraq’s Oil Ministry Sunday stopped auctioning its Kirkuk oil and began selling term contracts as production from the north has increased, UPI reports. The ability to continue such an output — considering the threat of attacks on the infrastructure and other sector-related problems – isn’t a sure bet. Iraq’s production has been increasing slowly, to about 2.3 million barrels per day last month.

Iraqi crude oil exports from northern Kirkuk oil fields to Turkey’s Ceyhan port have been suspended since Friday, a shipping agent at the terminal Monday told Dow Jones Newswires’ Hassan Hafidh. The agent said Kirkuk crude oil pumping to Ceyhan was suspended at 2000 local time Friday. Iraq only resumed the flow last Wednesday after a two-week suspension on a fault that occurred at one point of the export pipeline. Reuters reports the stoppage is due to storage capacity.

Only one of Iraq’s three major refineries is working after fires and electricity supply cuts took their toll in the winter cold, UPI reports.

The Iraq Oil Ministry reiterates its blockage of oil to SK Energy over a South Korean deal to look for and produce oil in Iraqi Kurdistan. SK has until Jan. 31 to decide whether to back out of the Kurdistan Regional Government deal or forego Iraqi oil, which had provided a hefty part of the country’s imports. The Ministry has given the ultimatum to all the KRG deal firms, it says. Reuters has the latest.

Security, Society & Politics

The fight for Mosul appears ready to escalate. It’s already a key issue of dispute between Kurds and Arabs as part of the “disputed territories.” The “surge” that at least temporarily cleared al-Qaida and other insurgents from Anbar and Baghdad provinces fled north and have been wreaking havoc in Mosul.

Iraqi army units reached the northern city of Mosul on Sunday in preparation for what the government said would be a major offensive there against Al Qaeda in Iraq and other Sunni militants, Ned Parker writes in the Los Angeles Times. Dozens have been killed in attacks there, and the Kurdistan Regional Government has dispatched humanitarian aid, Voices of Iraq reports.

Forty-five of the 12,000 displaced families in Babil province are pressing the Iraq Parliament to intervene in a Defense Ministry order of redisplacement. The families were given one week to leave a former military camp south of Baghdad, according to the U.N. humanitarian affairs office.

Politicians calling for more support for the thousands of children orphaned by the conflict, Hazim al-Shara’ reports for the Institute for War & Peace Reporting.

The Iraq Press Roundup, a recap of the day’s best editorials from Iraqi newspapers, by UPI’s Hiba Dawood.

Kurdish leaders pushed on all sides, colunist Ilnur Cevik writes in The New Anatolian.The leaders of northern Iraq’s Kurdish administration are facing tough days ahead. The Iraqi Arabs both Sunni and Shiite seem to unite against the Kurds who seem to be pushing for more autonomy.

Tensions are building between Kurdish leaders and Arab Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government in Baghdad, threatening to divide two of Iraq’s strongest political allies, Wrya Hama-Tahir reports for the Institute for War & Peace Reporting. Rifts over oil, Kirkuk and Peshmerga threaten alliance between Kurdish authorities and central government.

Bush may have to withdraw his support for Nouri Maliki if the prime minister continues to slow progress, Bing West and Max Boot write in a Los Angeles Times op-ed.

The cost of the war in Iraq has ballooned, in part, because of the dearth of trained acquisition professionals assigned to the theater and the failure of federal agencies to establish a uniform set of procurement policy guidelines, a pair of government watchdogs testified this week, Robert Brodsky writes for GovernmentExecutive.com.Defense and State Department officials, meanwhile, said that while slow out of the gate, they have altered many of their policies and are well on their way to reasserting control of contractors that work alongside military personnel.

A U.S. basketball coach opened the first women’s basketball school in Sulaimaniya city in an attempt to revive the sport and boost its popularity, Iraq’s basketball federation chief said on Saturday, Voices of Iraq news agency reports.

The Iraqi Football Federation (IFF) said on Friday that Iraqi midfielder Nashaat Akram’s move to British Premier League club Manchester City failed because it contradicts with the regulations set by the British Football Association (BFA), VOI reports.

Five years later, a look at Editor & Publisher’s special issue with George Bush on the cover that raised troubling issues about the administration’s case for war. The simple cover line told it all: “Unanswered Questions.”

“Reality Is Totally Different”:Iraqis on “Success” and “Progress” in Their Country, by Dahr Jamail, reporter for Inter Press Service and author of the new book “Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq.”

A former Russian top spy says his agents helped the Russian government steal nearly $500 million from the U.N.’s oil-for-food program in Iraq before the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, John Heilprin reports for The Associated Press.
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