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By John Lee.

The Iraqi Minister for Communications, Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi, has resigned, accusing Prime Minister Nouri Maliki of refusing to stop "political interference" in his ministry.

Mr Allawi is a member of the Sunni-backed Iraqiyya bloc, and a cousin of its leader Ayad Allawi.

"I present my resignation because I have become incapable of working in such an infested environment," he said in his resignation letter, which Maliki accepted.

On Monday, Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi told the AFP news agency: "I required certain conditions from the prime minister, to stop the political interference in my ministry."

"Otherwise, I told him: 'I am not ready to work at the ministry with this big interference.'"

"I told him: 'Either you fulfil those conditions or accept my resignation.' He decided after one month to accept my resignation."

Mr Allawi is thought to be the first member of the national unity government to resign since it was formed in 2010, although the Electricity Minister was sacked last year for allegedly authorising £1.1bn ($1.7bn) of improper contracts for power stations with foreign companies.

(Sources: Reuters, BBC, AFP)

By John Lee.

A spokesman from the parliamentary oil and gas committee has said that $27 billion has been spent on the electricity sector in Iraq since 2003, and that vast amounts of money have been wasted through corruption.

According to AKnews, Qasim Mohammed said:

"Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain Shahristani will be called to parliament after Ramadan Eid for two reasons.

"The presidency created a committee to investigate the electricity sector due to the huge amount of money being spent in this sector and still the problems have not been solved.

"Some $27bn have been spent on the electricity sector in Iraq since 2003 but electricity has only increased by 1,000 megawatts. The Kurdistan Region has spent $1bn and gained 2,000 megawatts more.

"There is huge corruption in the electricity sector in Iraq."

(Source: AKnews)

By John Lee.

Iraq's Ministry of Electricity has reportedly warned that the 2,000-MW Musayyib [Mussaib] power station may be forced to stop due to lack of fuel.

Musab al-Mudares, a spokesman for the Ministry of Electricity, said that fuel tanks at the station can hold enough fuel for two weeks, but the plant may stop working within days if new shipments are not received.

Iraq's Ministry for Oil has rejected the claims.

By Jared Levy, Senior Middle East Analyst at Dunia Frontier Consultants.

Dunia Frontier Consultants tracks foreign commercial activity (FCA) in Iraq, defined as investments, service contracts or any other form of commercial activity undertaken by non-Iraqi companies inside Iraq. An analysis of this data is undertaken annually in Dunia Frontier’s end-of-year Foreign Commercial Activity in Iraq report, downloadable for free on the Dunia website.

This blog post provides a preliminary look at FCA over the first seven months of 2012. Total deal numbers are broken down by sector, country of origin, and geographic distribution of commercial activity. It should be noted that the data presented here has not been subjected to the rigorous vetting and valuation process undertaken in the annual Foreign Commercial Activity in Iraq reports. As such, analysis is focused on the number of deals, as opposed to monetary value.

To date, 176 deals have been recorded in 2012, for an average of just over 25 deals/month. Extrapolated over a 12 month period, this would total 302 deals, or a 2% increase from 2011. In terms of number of deals, this represents a marked leveling of the curve, as 2011 saw a 40% increase in number of deals from 2010.

As demonstrated by the above table, MNCs operating in Iraq are heavily focused on oil and gas and electricity. This comes as no surprise. Both the central government, through the Ministry of Oil, and the Kurdistan Regional Government, through its Ministry of Natural Resources, continue to look to IOCs to develop their respective carbon resources.

Additionally, both the central government and the KRG continue to enlist foreign firms to enhance their electrical output, with numerous American, European and Asian companies constructing new power plants, as well as providing technological support to the central government’s and KRG’s Ministries of Electricity and local companies.

By John Lee.

The Iraqi government said on Tuesday that it will exempt Iraqi citizens from paying electricity and water bills until all power plant installations are completed and services are provided 24 hours a day.

Salam al-Quraishi, Iraqi government's economic advisor, told Al-Shorfa news agency:

"The decision was made after a review of the Iraqi economy and annual per capita income ... Collection of electricity and water bills has been suspended until all services are provided in full and around the clock.

"The government also decided to permanently exempt families with monthly income of less than 500,000 Iraqi dinars ($429)."

He added that the decision will not affect the current electricity supply rate in the country, which ranges between eight and 12 hours a day.

(Source: Al Shorfa)

By John Lee.

Crescent Petroleum and its partner and affiliate Dana Gas PJSC, have, in their capacity as joint operator of the Kor Mor field, announced that total production in their major gas operations in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq has grown steadily to reach 70,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, with total investment to date approaching $1bn.

The production includes 330 million cubic feet of gas per day and 15,000 barrels per day of condensate liquids, and there are plans for further expansion.

In total, over 249 billion cubic feet of gas and 11.7 million barrels of condensate liquids have been produced by the companies since the start of production in October 2008, with the gas supply to local power stations enabling 1,750 MW of new electricity supply.

This has ensured almost continuous power supply for 4 million people in the Kurdistan Region, in contrast to the electricity crisis in other parts of Iraq, and provided billions of dollars of savings in fuel costs for the government and very significant environmental benefits in cutting down pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, while transforming the economic and social environment.

"We are proud to be the largest investors in the Kurdistan Region's oil and gas sector, and to have already enabled major economic and social benefits for the people of the Kurdistan Region and all of Iraq, especially with the improved and secure electricity supply," said Mr. Majid Jafar (pictured), CEO of Crescent Petroleum and Member of the Dana Gas Board of Directors.

"We are in discussions with the KRG Ministry of Natural Resources on the next phase of development and expansion, to grow our operations and enable further progress and prosperity for the local community."

By John Lee.

The Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Nechirvan Barzani (pictured), has said that the policy of his government is to achieve self-sufficiency in fuel and electricity generation.

He said that the Baghdad government is cutting Kurdistan's share from the fuel produced at the Iraqi refineries.

"Therefore, in these two fields we will have our independence and will provide the demand of the [Kurdistan] region," Barzani said.

Kurdistan and Baghdad accuse each other of smuggling oil and dealing improperly with oil revenues.

(Source:AKnews)

By Abu Iraq and Khalid Waleed.

This article was originally published by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, iwpr.net, and it is reproduced by Iraq Business News with permission. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News

Iraq's government sacked a senior energy official and launched investigations into others after residents of the southern port city of Basra staged angry protests over prolonged power cuts.

"The electricity ministry ordered the dismissal of the director-general of power distribution in the southern region, and warned managers of electrical projects and networks in Basra that they could face penalties," a statement published on the ministry’s website said last week. "They are responsible for damaging three important transmission lines."

The announcement came in response to demonstrations that erupted in Basra as residents grew weary of the constant power outages as Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, got under way.

The lack of air conditioners and electric fans compounded the hardship of fasting in the soaring daytime temperatures of late July and August.

"Life has become unbearable – we can’t breathe since there’s no electricity [for cooling] in this summer’s extreme heat," Saad Hadi, a taxi driver who joined the protests, said. "Power cuts are nothing new, but with the summer heat and Ramadan, we can’t put up with it any longer.”

By Gary Sandiford, Olive Group’s Dubai based assessments manager.  Olive Group is a leading provider of security and technology solutions and has operated continuously in Iraq since 2003.

Overview

Olive Group's Iraq statistics are drawn from multiple sources, including media reporting and direct liaison with in country assets. Included within the statistics are a minority sub-set of serious incidents which may not be purely attributable to insurgent/terrorist groups, such as murder, kidnappings and organised crime activities.

The total reported incidents in Iraq for the week 30 July to 5 August 2012 was 159. This is on par with last week’s figure of 161, but still significantly above the current weekly average for 2012 of 107 . This high weekly total resulted from a high volume of small attacks, particularly in Baghdad and the north central region, rather than coordinated large scale attacks. Attacks largely focussed on small and poorly defended ISF checkpoints, suggesting that insurgents have adopted this inexpensive tactic in order to maintain a high operational tempo and keep security in the headlines during Ramadan. There were a number of more substantial incidents over the period, most notably a coordinated attack on the Hoot prison in Taji and an attack against the Counter Terrorism Directorate in Karada in central Baghdad. These attacks follow the recent Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) statement which threatened to target Iraq’s ‘Law and Order’ apparatus. The south central and south east regions, by contrast, have remained subdued.

By John Lee.

A Russian business delegation has visited the city of Ramadi to investigate investment opportunities in Anbar province.

Saadoun Obeid al-Shaalan, head of the provincial council, told NINA news agency:

"The delegation represents a group of leading Russian companies specialized in the manufacture of large power stations, the production and distribution of electricity, and the construction of vertical housing units."

The group promised to submit an action plan to the Investment Commission.

(Source: NINA)