Ashti Hawrami was not lying

In a remarkable development, Iraqi central government agreed Sunday to grant the Kurds in the northern semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan an export permit for the oil produced in their region, Sinan Salaheddin reports for The Associated Press.

Today's news rebuffed last Friday denial by the Oil Ministry when the region's Natural Resources Minister, Ashti Hawrami, set June 1 to start crude exporting from two oil fields. Assem Jihad, who denied Hawrami's statement on Friday, confirmed today the reports.

But it sounds to me that the two sides have reached a middle solution by keeping the issue of how these companies will be remunerated and how they will take their shares from the profit oil pending. Both sides are now saying that all the produced oil will be handed over to the Oil Ministry's State-run Oil Marketing Organization, SOMO.

But none is saying anything about how this issue will be treated, we'll find out in the future.

kassakhoon@gmail.com

Ashti Hawrami lies again...why?

The Minister of Natural Resources in Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government, Ashti Hawrami, announced Friday that the Kurds will start exporting crude oil, produced in two oil fields in their region, on June 1 via the Iraq-Turkey oil pipeline. But later it was found out that the annoucement was only a lie.

Immediately after the announcement, two senior Iraqi officials, the Oil Ministry's spokesman and the head of state-run oil marketing organization, denied that any deal had been completed. In addition, the companies involved in developing Tawke and Taq Taq oil fields also denied Hawrami's annoucement.

So what Mr. Hawrami wants to gain from this move? does he want to embarrass Iraqi Oil Minister, Hussein al-Shahristani who is under heavy pressure to increase Iraq's nearly 2.4 million barrels a day to force him to recognize the widely-rejected production-sharing contracts the Kurds signed with western oil companies? or he just wanted to shore up the two companies shares in the stock market?....or what?

kassakhoon@gmail.com

It is the central government fault

Once again the Kurdish Natural Resources Minister, Ashti Hawrami, finds an opportunity to release his usual fiery statements and criticism against his counterpart in the central government, Hussain al-Shahristani.And listed reasons.

After hearing rumors of delaying bids to develop eight oil and gas fields, Hawrami found Iraq Oil Report a good place to issue his statement which came with a picture for him smirking.

He says Baghdad oil officials are acting un-constitutionaly and illegally and that they have to be punished because they are violating the constitution, neglecting the parliament approval, not inviting KRG to these negotiations and offering fields in disputed areas.

And finally he said that Baghdad's Oil Ministry wasted time over the past years as it didn't sign any contract yet, forgetting or trying to forget the security situation Iraq has gone through since 2003 which I personally believe that Kurds have in somehow a role in it.

And now he and other Kurdish officials are acting as Kurds and not Iraqis as trying to tell the central government that they can put the sticks in the wheel and blow up all their development plans unless they (Baghdad officials) recognize their illegal and unconstitutional contracts which they signed without consulting the central government or even their regional parliament and without any bidding process.

I think you, Mr. Hawrami, should answer all these questions before you accuse and threaten the central government and behave in a very arrogant way. You, the Kurds, are the ones who are squandering Iraq's oil resources in your region and derailing the development plans in other areas in Iraq at a time Iraqi people need what ever dollars from each barrel.

As an Iraqi, I can blame the central government for only one thing which is to give the Kurds the opportunity to flex their muscles to an extent they never dreamed of before.

kassakhoon@gmail.com

Iraq's battered economy

It is Reuters' day as offering three stories on Iraqi oil and battered economy.

In one of them, Ahmed Rasheed reports Iraqi Oil Minister, Hussain al-Shahristani's reply to parliament's oil and gas committee on the multi-billion dollar natural gas deal Iraq signed with Royal Dutch Shell last year.

Al-Shahristani said the initial agreement would not allow Shell to set the price for gas sold within Iraq's domestic market.And The Associated Press quoted him as saying local energy demands would be the top priority and not the exports. [ENDLESS POLITICAL CONFLICT]

On the second story, Suleiman al-Khalidi reports that Iraq's budget deficit could soar to $25 bln (17.2 billion pounds) this year if oil exports stay at their current low levels. [EXPECTED AND THE WORSE TO COME]

The country's Finance Minister, Bayan Jabor, said the government is mulling new taxes and import duties to boost revenues. [OF COURSE THE ONLY ONE WILL BE AFFECTED IS THE NORMAL CITIZEN]

And the third was brought by, Mohammed Abbas, who also quoted Jabor as saying that the government is considering securing a $7-billion loan from the International Monetary Fund to enhance its shaky budget. [BEGGING JUST STARTED]

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Well done guys...

This is the news I and of course all Iraqis really love to hear: Iraq Stock Exchange flipped the switch Sunday on electronic trading to ensure faster exchange and leave the outdated paper work, Sinan Salaheddin reports for The Associated Press.

Although the ISX is still not like others in the region and most important it is still a market where shares prices controlled by speculations rather than the companies activities, but it is a good step forward Iraqi shattered economy witnesses.

Today's event also sheds the light on a very important thing: places and fields , like ISX, where politicians are not involved see major leaps but places which are run by politicians never see any major development.

Well done for all those who are behind this achievement...Iraq's future depends on people like you.

kassakhoon@gmail.com

Iraq suffers drop in oil revenues, exports

The Associated Press' Sinan Salaheddin went through Iraqi Oil Ministry's records and found that the country's oil revenues dropped by 57.6 percent and exports by about 100,000 barrels a day in the first quarter of 2009 compared with the same period of 2008.

The revenues in the first three months of this year stood at about US$6.57 billion, with an average daily export level slightly over 1.8 million barrels.While the same period in 2008 witnessed US$15.49 billion in revenues and oil exports level was just over 1.9 million barrels a day, the records show.

kassakhoon@gmail.com

A caravan for each widow

The Iraqi government is offering a 40-square-meter caravan for each displaced family headed by a widow in a newly erected makeshift camp in the eastern side of the capital, Baghdad, the UN IRINnews reports.

The Head of Baghdad council’s displacement committee, Mazin al-Shihan, told IRIN that each caravan contains two bedrooms, a living room, a toilet and kitchen.

The camp, which is a twin for another one erected last year in Baghdad's western side, has a 500-KVA generator, washing facilities and a sewage system. It is designed to house 150 families.

IRIN's story also published for the first time an official statistic, issued by Iraqi Planning Ministry, for the number of widows in this war-plagued country.

It is about 900,000 nationwide.

kassakhoon@gmail.com

"Phenomena"

Eventually, the Iraqi government has decided to establish a committee to investigate the certificates submitted by governmental officials for their educational degrees, calling the falsification of certificates a "phenomena" to get administrative and financial privileges.

And like hundreds of declarations, Monday's statement bore warns for those who submitted false certificates that all their privileges will be stripped and they will be brought to justice...WOW

Since you call it a "phenomena" why you decided to put an end to it just now? And if you can't touch officials who are accused of crimes and corruption just because they are affiliated to influential political parties how you will be able to bring those with false certificates to justice?

kassakhoon@gmail.com

The right man in the right place

It is a remarkable gain by which we can really applaud the Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani and his Ministry's staff. It is the absence of petrol queues nationwide.

The Times' Deborah Haynes brings us this story today by talking to normal people and to an oil official, who I highly appreciate and respect for his unlimited loyalty to his work and then his country.

He is Dathar al-Khashab who heads the State-run Midland Refineries.

I remember when I first saw him when he was running Baghdad's Dora refinery in early 2000s.

Unlike most Iraqi officials who kept themselves inside elegant western suits and never leave their air-conditioned offices, al-Khashab was always in his blue engineering coveralls moving from place to another in the sites with other workers.

And he is still in his uniform even after he has been promoted to be the Head of the Oil Ministry's Midland Refineries.

"I am very optimistic,” al-Khashab told The Times. “I believe in the Iraqi capabilities. We do know we can do it, provided we get the right help from the right people,” he added.

Iraq's oil industry is in dire need for such persons who care only about their work and most important they know what they are doing.

In another word, the right man in the right place.

kassakhoon@gmail.com

Will you offer them or not?

In an interview broadcast on Friday, Iraqi Oil Minister ruled out that Iraq would offer production-sharing contracts to the International oil companies and that contradicts his March 10 statement in Vienna that his country was considering such agreements.

"The (oil) companies should not expect to share Iraqis with their (oil) resource," Hussain al-Shahistani told al-Sharqiya TV.

In his earlier statement, al-Shahristani said: : "We will consider production-sharing arrangements for" some of the 70 exploration blocks to be offered later this year, as quoted by Dow Jones News wires.

Now, Dr. al-Shahristani will you offer them or not? and why you are giving such contradicting statements?

kassakhoon@gmail.com

Good news from Interior Minister

That is really good news brought by The Associated Press' Sinan Salaheddin: a hire freezing in the Iraqi Interior Ministry due to shortage in cash this year.

Interior Minister, Jawad al-Bolani told The AP in an interview that his ministry has been forced to put on hold some of its plans to recruit more police due to cuts in the government's 2009 budget prompted by plummeting oil prices. He was planning to establish a police brigade in each province.

Thanks God, we will see no more police patrols roaming the streets with their sirens wailing around the clock who know nothing about their real mission or anything about the word "respect" that must be showed in dealing with normal people.

kassakhoon@gmail.com