It’s generally accepted internationally that the elections in Iraq were, in the main, free and fair, but former prime minister Ayad Allawi’s narrow margin of victory means the results will be challenged.

Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki’s Shiite Muslim State of Law alliance filed a complaint on Tuesday with the Supreme Court, asking for a recount in several areas. When the dust settles, the Sadrist Iraqi National Alliance (INA) could be the kingmaker, having secured a strong third place.

Meanwhile, plans to re-base the Iraqi currency, the dinar, appear to be going ahead, but the exact timing of the change is still to be decided. The new dinar will be worth one thousand times the old one, which will help facilitate trade and foreign exchange, but will be otherwise neutral in terms of valuation.

While the local currency has gained in value in recent years, the planned increase in petroleum production, and the expected boom that this will create in the domestic economy, have led many to speculate that the dinar will continue to strengthen.

The dinar is already becoming more acceptable and credible as a means of exchange; mobile phone operator Asiacell just announced that it will change its tariffs and billing from dollars to dinars. And as AAIB’s Rob Edwards reports, his company will write insurance policies in either currency.

Where do you think the dinar is headed? We’d welcome your opinions in the comments section below.

31 March 2010 – Source OilPrice.com

The delay in the renewal of the agreement for the operation of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline has served as a reminder of the many obstacles that still have to be overcome if the line is ever to fulfill its potential, both as an export route for Iraq and as a source of transit revenue for Turkey.
 
Talks between Iraq and Turkey over the renewal of the agreement stalled earlier this week.  Although Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz publicly predicted that the impasse could be overcome within “a week to ten days”, privately Turkish officials were less optimistic. They claimed that Iraqi officials were insisting that the new agreement should include a clause which would protect any oil transported through the pipeline against court sequestration orders.  Turkish officials maintain that such a guarantee would violate international law.
 
The Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline has been operating well below capacity for nearly 20 years.  First commissioned in 1976, the pipeline runs for 620 miles (990 kilometers) from Kirkuk and nearby oilfields in northern Iraq to the port of Ceyhan on Turkey’s eastern Mediterranean coast. In 1987, a second pipeline was added, running parallel to the first. The twin pipelines currently have a combined capacity of 1.5 million barrels/day (b/d) of crude oil.
 
Turkey paid for the construction of the approximately 400 miles (640 kilometers) of pipeline running across its territory in the expectation that transit revenue would prove to be a lucrative source of foreign exchange.  Under a 20 year agreement signed in 1985, Iraq agreed to pump a minimum of 700,000 b/d along the pipeline. The agreement was extended for a further five years in 2005.
 
However, damage inflicted by US-led allied bombing during the 1991 Gulf War was followed by UN sanctions, which only began to be eased in 1997.  The twin pipeline is built above the ground and, in recent years, has been proved an easy target both for insurgents in Iraq and for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been waging a 26 year-old insurgency of its own for greater rights for Turkey’s Kurdish minority.  The introduction in 2007 of additional security measures has reduced the number of attacks on the pipeline, but they still occur.
 
Damage as a result of sabotage has exacerbated the already poor state of repair of the pipeline. In 2009, throughput averaged 480,000 b/d, considerably below both the pipeline’s capacity and the minimum guaranteed to Turkey.  In February 2010, the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline carried an average of 455,000 b/d, approximately 22 percent of Iraq’s total exports of 2.07 million b/d.
 
However, although Iraq remains publicly committed to increasing the throughput – and has even discussed expanding the capacity – of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, in practice it has focused more on plans to improving its facilities around Basra and Khor al-Amaya in anticipation of a rise in exports from its southern oil fields.
 
In the run-up to the beginning of negotiations over the renewal of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan agreement, Turkish officials had indicated that they would raise the issue of the Iraqi government’s future plans, particularly whether it was willing to increase the throughput and perhaps even increase the capacity of the pipeline.  Turkish officials had suggested that they would also discuss improving security along the pipeline, and had warned that they could also push for higher transit fees unless Iraq delivered on its guaranteed minimum throughput.
 
The Iraqi demand that the new agreement should include guarantees against sequestration appears to have taken the Turkish officials by surprise.  But the demand was based on experience rather than hypothesis. In July 2007, pumping was temporarily interrupted after a Turkish court ordered that oil from the pipeline should be used to pay $50 million of a $100 million debt incurred by the Iraqi state during the time of President Saddam Hussein.
 
The court ruled that the oil was an asset of the Iraqi state and, as it was being pumped across Turkish territory, creditors were within their rights to file a case with a Turkish court for its seizure.  Although the case was subsequently resolved and oil once again began to flow along the pipeline, it has created a legal precedent; and raised the possibility that more cases may be filed with Turkish courts for the seizure of oil arriving at Ceyhan in payment both for debts incurred by the Saddam regime and as compensation for damages and losses incurred as a result of its actions.

Privately, Turkish officials remain adamant that including any guarantees against the sequestration of the oil in the new agreement for the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline would be in breach of international law and maintain that they are confident of signing a new accord with the Iraqis.  But, for the moment at least, it is unclear how the issue is going to be resolved. 

Iraqi Agriculture Ministry has implemented a communication network that links its border health isolation centers to each other.

“The network relies on the Internet,” the ministry said in a release on Tuesday received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

It said that the network allows effective communication between the centers.

( Aswat Al Iraq )

A one-day conference was held in Arbil city on Tuesday to discuss agriculture circumstances in the Iraqi region of Kurdistan.

“We will help farmers in Kurdistan,” a source from the conference told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

He said that the conference aims at helping farmers learn how to control production costs.

( Aswat Al Iraq )

The Ministry of Industry and Minerals hosted a training course yesterday organized by the Integrity Commission in cooperation with General Inspectors  Office under the title “Financial and administrational corruption and protection of the general fund”, Senior staff from the Integrity Commission and central office staff attended in the location of the ministry.

In a communiqué, presented by the Media Office of the Ministry, received by Eye Media, the General Inspector of the Ministry, Salim Boles, highlighted the articles of the UN Treaty for Fighting Corruption and Iraq’s participation. The Treaty was a joint effort by a group of states, which was approved . It stressed the important need to create international cooperation concerning integrity of behaviour and procedures, in the exchange of criminals and retrieval of funds These states have worked to form international law to cover these matters which is the thing that Iraq withdrew from and from which it will benefit.

Boles also stated that Iraq efforts in forming a national strategy to fight corruption which was declared officially and internationally on Wednesday 24/03/2020, represented an example of similar policies of fighting corruption that was submitted by other countries who had signed the agreement under the supervision of UN experts….

The communiqué also states that the General Inspector of the Ministry demonstrated many other things which concern the work of normal inspectors and the Integrity Commission in respect of all departments of the country.

The course finished with discussion and dialogue between the General Inspector of the Ministry and the Commission ‘s senior staff on integrity, the work of the commission and the General Inspector’s offices. Many suggestions and opinions were discussed in respect of the working of  supervision systems and awareness of cultural aspects.

( Eye media company )

The Trade Bank of Iraq (TBI) has doubled the maximum value of Letters of Credit it allocates to the private banking sector in Iraq.

Last year alone 945 Letters of Credit were allocated to private banks, at a value of approximately $500m. The total number allocated to private banks by TBI is 2,446, at a value of about $3bn.

In response to a strong increase in demand for cross-border trade finance , TBI has increased the value of each Letter of Credit from a value of up to $2m to a new maximum of $4m.

This will immediately free 18 private banks to increase the size and range of the business activities they finance for their clients. The number of Iraqi banks involved in the scheme is also expected to increase.

The return of widespread stability to the country, plus developments such as the successful issuance of oil licences, has put Iraq back on the path to economic growth and business expansion.

Hussein Al-Uzri, Chairman of TBI, said:

“The Bank has a strong capital base and the expertise to help private banks to expand this important line of business at a time when demand for trade finance is rising fast. We have always been prudent in determining credit limits and are confident that the increased limit prudently matches the revival in credit appetite.”

“As well as allocating Letters of Credit we are providing a training programme to enable each local bank to develop its own in-house ability to arrange cross-border business. TBI is also helping them to develop their own working relationships with our large and growing number of international correspondent banks.

“We are proud to be a catalyst in the regeneration of the banking system in order to finance and facilitate Iraq’s re-emergence as a major regional and international economic power.”

The head of the Diwaniya Investment Commission said on Tuesday that Estonia’s Kondra company will set up a residential compound in the province.

“The commission signed a memorandum of understanding with Estonian Kondra SVA Ltd. to establish a residential compound in the province,” Hakem al-Khuzaaie told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

( Aswat Al Iraq )

The governor of Basra has met with the Turkish consul to discuss possible investment opportunities in the province, an official statement said on Tuesday.

The meeting was also attended by members of a Turkish association, according to a statement released by the governor’s office and received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

The visit aims to acquaint the delegation with the economic situation in Basra, the statement pointed out.
Governor Shaltagh Abboud al-Mayah has called on the delegation to visit the investment commission, the Chamber of Commerce and the businessmen’s union to have a thorough vision of the potential projects in Basra, the statement added.

( Aswat Al Iraq )