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By John Lee.

The Thi Qar Investment Commission has approved an Investment License for a $60 million (USD) affordable housing project being developed by Iraq Dream Homes, LLC, a U.S. affordable housing development firm.

The housing project “An Nasiriyah Dream Homes-Phase I” consists of 400 units of single-family affordable homes in a master-planned, sustainable community development. In addition to the energy saving technology and design incorporated into the development, An Nasiriyah Dream Homes-Phase I will include a hybrid solar/photovoltaic renewable energy plant for clean and stable electricity supply for the development’s residents.

According to Iraq Dream Homes, LLC Managing Director William Johnson:

“Thi Qar Investment Commission’s approval of the Investment License for our affordable and sustainable housing project marks a very significant milestone in the project’s development and provides a clear indication that Iraq is serious about addressing their housing shortfall.”

Engineer Ali M. Sangoor, Iraq Dream Homes, LLC Country Manager  says:

“Working with Dr. Luay AL-Khairulla, Chairman of the Commission and the Thi Qar Investment Commission staff in the development of An Nasiriyah Dream Homes-Phase I has been a pleasure and we look forward to delivering our high quality, affordable homes to the residents of An Nasiriyah.”

Iraq Dream Homes, LLC was awarded the Investment License for the An Nasiriyah Dream Homes-Phase I project under Iraq’s Investment Law #13. A combination of construction lending from a U.S lending agency and an Iraqi commercial bank, along with private equity will provide financing the project.

Construction on An Nasiriyah Dream Homes-Phase I, located in the Municipality of An Nasiriyah, Thi Qar Province in southern Iraq is expected to start in November 2012, with initial turnover occupancy of homes scheduled to begin in June 2013.

By John Lee.

Alstom Grid has announced that it has won contracts worth €34 million ($42 million) from KAR Construction & Engineering Company to engineer and supply substations for the electrical grid.

The company will supply four 132/33/11 kV Air-insulated Switchgear (AIS) substations and one 132/33/11 kV Gas-insulated Switchgear (GIS) substation for the Kurdistan Regional Government Ministry of Electricity. The package award also includes extensions and modifications of three existing area substations. All substations are located within the Dohuk Governorate, part of the Kurdistan Regional Authority of the Republic of Iraq.

Kar Construction & Engineering Company is part of Kar Group, a local and privately owned Iraqi company having diverse interests in turnkey projects, private power plants, oil refineries, oil pipelines and vehicle insurance.

The Ministry of Electricity floated several tenders under "Stage 6" for substations in Erbil, Sulaymania and Dohuk Governorates. These substations are part of the region's ongoing efforts to keep pace with rapid economic development, by increasing both the availability and the reliability of the electrical network. It will enable the expansion of the transmission and distribution networks in the main city of Dohuk and surrounding suburbs.

This contract reaffirms Alstom Grid's commitment to taking an active role in the reconstruction and development of this growing region. This is the first substation project for Alstom in this region since the successful implementation of similar 132/33/11 KV substations in Erbil and Dohuk awarded to Alstom in 2002 under United Nations Development Plan for the rebuilding of northern Iraq.

Grégoire Poux-Guillaume, Alstom Grid President, declared:

"This project represents an important milestone for Alstom Grid as we re-enter Kurdistan's market with a complete range of products covering both air-insulated and gas-insulated switchgear solutions, critical to the infrastructure of the region's electricity network. This project underlines our continuing efforts in Iraq, including Mosul 400/132/33kV GIS substation and Khairat & Nainawa GTPP 400/132kV exit substations won last year."

The commissioning of these Dohuk substations is planned for September 2013. Alstom Grid's scope of work includes engineering, equipment supply (including substation automation systems) and commissioning supervision for 132/33/11 kV Air-insulated Switchgear (AIS) substations at North Dohuk (9 bays), Zakho 2 (9 bays), Bardarash (10 bays) and Kalakchi (10 bays), 132/33/11 kV Gas-insulated Switchgear (GIS) substation at West Dohuk (10 bays), as well as extensions and modifications at Sarsang, Akre Centre and Zakho 1 substations.

By John Lee.

Shell plans to start pumping gas from its gas joint venture in southern Iraq in the next three weeks according to Reuters.

Initial production will be 60 million cubic feet per day, but Shell's Iraq boss Hans Nijkamp told Deputy Prime Minister Hussain al-Shahristani that output would be increased by a further 40 million cubic feet a day several weeks after pumping starts.

Officials have said that the project will handle 2 billion cubic feet per day by 2017.

In November, Shell and Mitsubishi signed a $17 billion deal to capture flared gas at the country's southern oilfields, which currently burn off more than 700 million cubic feet of gas per day.

Hans Nijkamp, Shell vice-president and head of the company's Iraq projects, told Iraq Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain al-Shahristani that output would be increased by a further 40 million cubic feet a day several weeks after pumping starts, a statement from Shahristani's office said.

The gas will be used for electricity generation and in the petrochemical industry.

(Source: Reuters)

Temperatures are soaring to 45 degrees Celcius (113 degrees F) in Baghdad, and 50 degrees (122 degrees F) in Basra; nothing unusual about that at this time of year.

What is unusual is the increased availability of electricity to cope with the demands of air-conditioners to deal with the problem.

The Ministry of Electricity says output exceeded 8,000 MW in June, and will hit 9,000 MW by the end of this month.

It's still a long way from the 14,000 MW that some estimates say are currently needed in Iraq, but it's a big step forward from the 6,000 MW that was available just last summer, and that is to be applauded.

Plans are moving ahead in meeting that requirement, with Deputy Prime Minister Hussein al-Shahristani predicting output of 20,000 MW by the end of next year, which would put Iraq in a position to export electricity.

Just this week we reported on another power plant project which will help to achieve that goal, and it will be welcomed with open arms by all.

Watch this space for more news of infrastructural development in Iraq.

By John Lee.

An international consortium has received local government approval to build three new power stations in central and southern Iraq, and is now waiting on approval from the Central Government in Baghdad.

They will be built by a consortium of led by Semco Maritime of Denmark, AMH Group of the United Kingdom, and Kayi Construction Inc. of Turkey, along with other British and European firms including Parsons Brinckerhoff and Mott Macdonald.

To discuss the project, the consortium recently met with:

• Vice President Dr. Khodair al-Khozaei [Khudayr Musa Jafar Abbas al-Khuzai];
• Minister of Electricity, Mr. Kareem Aftan Al-Jumily [Jumayli];
• Dr Sami al Araji, Chairman of the National Investment Commission;
• Mr. Hyder Raad Zahid, Head of Corporate Banking at the Trade Bank of Iraq;
• Mr. Zaid Mehdi, Deputy Chairman for Business Development, Trade Bank of Iraq;
• Danish Ambassador, Mr. Gert Meinecke;
• British Head of Mission Mr. Robert Deane, representing the then British Ambassador Michael Aron.

The plants will have a combined capacity of 382 MW.

Iran, ahead of full sanctions by the EU that started on July 1

By Chris Bowers, British Consul General in Erbil. This article was originally published by Rudaw, and is re-published with permission by Iraq Business News.

All good things have to come to an end. After one season short of two years, dear reader, I will be returning to London to spend more time with my family. This will be my last column as HM Consul General in Erbil. My successor, a fine and experienced diplomat called Hugh Evans stands in the wings. I know that he is excited to be coming to the Kurdistan Region.

I hope, dear reader, that through these columns you have been able to read something of what we in the UK think important in the Kurdistan Region and beyond.

What have I learned in my time here?

I have learned that there is a huge appetite in the Kurdistan Region to engage with the international community, primarily the West, to make up for the lost decades of isolation. I have been thrilled to see that within that context Britain retains a special place in the affections of many Kurds. From what I can distil, when a Kurd meets a Brit they assume a knowledge and understanding of the ways of the region, a commitment to quality, a sense of humour and a belief in fairness. Many Kurds have told me their memories about how the UK led in establishing no fly zones in 1991-2 and the role of our soldiers and our airmen as they helped Kurds laid the foundations of what we see today. It is humbling to be here and it is our duty as representatives of Britain to build on these strong foundations.

KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani on Thursday inaugurated the first electricity plant anywhere in Iraq to be converted to a combined cycle system. The conversion will increase the amount of electricity produced without using extra fuel to run the plant, to support the growing electricity needs of the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.

Speaking at the ceremony, Prime Minister Barzani said,

“As we have announced before in the agenda of the government, facilitating and supporting the expansion of the private sector’s participation in long-term industrial projects is a major goal of this current government. We want to see more factories, more production, and more major agricultural initiatives, and we will do what we can to clear away obstacles to progress, and provide a safe, secure, and reliable business environment.”

The Erbil Power Plant upgrade is being made by Kurdistan’s Mass Global together with Turkey’s ENKA, using two steam turbines supplied by GE to boost output without additional fuel by 470 megawatts, enough additional electricity to serve 100,000 Iraqi households.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has already begun exporting electricity to both Kirkuk and Mosul, helping to alleviate shortages in other parts of Iraq and increasing revenues for Kurdistan.

Mr Sefa Sadık Aytekin, Deputy Undersecretary of Turkey’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, said,

“This is a very important project between the Kurdish and Turkish private sectors and such projects are indicative of this solid relationship between the KRG and Turkey, particularly in the energy sector.”

The Prime Minister reiterated his commitment to the long-term industrial projects that are a major goal of the KRG. He said,

“As was true when I served in the Fifth Cabinet, electricity, water, and services are the most important priorities of the KRG today also, and we will continue prioritizing these sectors. They are important for our citizens because they will fuel further development in other sectors as well.”

He added,

"As a nation, we must make better use of technology, learn modern work methods, and become more professional and committed in our work habits. We must develop a better work culture; we need to improve our productivity and better utilise our time at our jobs.”

The Prime Minister thanked the American company GE, Belgium’s CMI, and Germany’s ABB and GEA for helping ENKA to complete the project. He welcomed the contribution of international investors and businesses in Kurdistan and thanked them for their hard work in utilizing and expanding their partnership with the KRG and the international community as a whole.

Several KRG and foreign officials participated in the ceremony, including the KRG Minister of Electricity Yasin Sheikh Abubakir Mawati; the Governor of Erbil Nawzad Hadi, and the Governor of Kirkuk Najmaldin Karim.

(Source: KRG)

Iraq's Oil Ministry spokesman, Assem Jihad, said he expects that liquidified gas will be exported from Iraq by the end of next year.

Acccording to a report from Aswat al-Iraq, the spokesman pointed out that dry gas will be exported by 2017, and said Shell confirmed that Iraq is burning about 700 million cubic feet daily "of the extracted gas from the fields utilized by Shell".

This amount of gas could generate as much as 4,500 megawatts of electricity.

(Source: Aswat Al Iraq)

Iraq's Ministry of Electricity has announced that it was producing at a rate of 8,027 MW at the end of June, "the highest since the foundation of the MoE".

Spokesperson Musab al-Mudaris said that production would increase to "up to" (sic) 9,000 MW by end of July.

According to the report from AIN, this compares to total available electricity, both domestically produced and imported, of 6,000 MW last summer.

(Source: AIN)

Iraq's cabinet has approved a supplementary budget for 2012 of 10.875 trillion Iraqi dinar ($9.35 billion), in addition to the $100.5 billion package agreed by parliament in February which was based on an average world oil price of $85 a barrel and crude oil exports of 2.6 million bpd.

According to Reuters, budgetary matters usually pass through parliament after approval by the cabinet.

Spokesperson of the Iraqi Government, Dr Ali al-Dabbagh (pictured), said that the supplementary Budget has been distributed "according to the necessary priorities", incuding IQD 2 trillion allocated to the Ministry of Electricity's projects, 1.4 trillion for the Ration Card, 1 trillion for the Defense Ministry and IQD 830 billion as compensations of the Kuwait War.

(Sources: Reuters, AIN)