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Reuters reports that the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity has signed a contract valued at a total of $69.8 million with the Iranian Farab Company.

The deal is to double the generation capacity of the gas-fired power plant in Sadr City in Baghdad.

According the contract, production should reach 640 megawatts within 12 months.

(Source: Reuters)

Basra Investment Commission has announced a new investment opportunity for the establishment of power plant in the Hartha area.

The new plant will have a capacity of 100 MegaWatts.

Companies interested in this opportunity should contact Basra Investment Commission for more details: [email protected]

(Source: Basra Investment Commmission)

Basra Council has signed the contract for the construction of 12,000 housing units in the Shatt al-Arab district.

The local government allocated 1,600 acres to the project, which is expected to be started within the month and completed within two years.

It is to be carried out by a UAE-based company named Kika (?).

The project includes the construction of infrastructure including water distribution networks and electricity.

(Source: Basra Investment Commission)

Patrick Kron, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Alstom, and the Iraqi Vice Minister of Electricity, His Excellency Salam Kazzaz, signed on 11 December, in the presence of His Excellency Karim Aftan El Jumaily, Minister of Electricity, a contract worth approximately €400 million to build the 728 MW Al Mansuriya gas-fired power plant in the Diyala Governorate, northeast of Baghdad. The plant will consist of four units, based on Alstom's GT13E2 gas turbine, and will be constructed under a turnkey contract, covering delivery of equipment and civil works.

The plant will add generation capacity to Iraq's electricity network by providing enough electricity to the entire Diyala Governorate and a part of Baghdad, located 80 km away from the plant. The first unit of the plant is scheduled to be operational in early 2013. Equipment will be manufactured in Alstom's factories in France, Switzerland and Germany. With more than 10 million operating hours accumulated worldwide, Alstom's GT13E2 gas turbine has demonstrated superior operational performance and continues to provide reliable power to millions of consumers worldwide.

Commenting on the win, Mark Coxon, Senior Vice President of Alstom's Gas business said:

"Alstom is proud to be participating in the reconstruction of Iraq's energy infrastructure. I am positive that our superior gas turbine technology, offering outstanding availability and reliability, will support the country in building up secure electricity supplies for the future."

In July 2010, Patrick Kron, Chairman and CEO of Alstom, and the Ministry of Electricity, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the development and modernisation of Iraq's electricity infrastructure. Under this MoU, Alstom is currently rehabilitating unit 1 of the Najaf gas-fired power station, 160 km south of Baghdad. The unit was out of operation for five years; the rehabilitation will allow the first turbine, recontribute again an output of 60 MW to the Iraqi electricity network.

Speech by KRG Minister Herish Muharam, Chairman of the Kurdistan Investment Board, to “Iraq – Untapped Opportunities” Conference in London.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I’m very pleased to participate in this important conference on the untapped opportunities in Iraq. As the Chairman of the Kurdistan Board of Investment, it’s my pleasure to be speaking to you, the British business community and members of the Middle East Association, which has championed trade with the Kurdistan Region and the rest of Iraq since 2006.

Despite a slow start, British companies have been catching up in the past year. Now Britain has the third highest number of firms registered with the KRGMinistry of Trade and Industry, only behind Turkey and Iran. As of June this year, 68 British companies hadregistered. And I was very happy to see that the UK had one of the largest pavilions at the Erbil International Trade Fair this year.

Kurdistan’s Investment Board is in charge of all direct investments except those in the oil and gas sector. So while there are massive opportunities in oil and gas, I will focus on opportunities in other sectors.

I’m proud to report that in Kurdistan we are succeeding in our efforts to attract direct investment, mainlynational and some foreign. Since the Kurdistan Investment Law was passed in 2006, our Region has attracted nearly 16 billion dollars of investment, of which 14 percent was by foreign investors, and 4 percent was through joint ventures. Foreign investment has come mainly from Lebanon and Turkey. But we need to do more to attract investment from Britain and other Western countries. It is entirely understandable that Western companies are wary of newly emerging markets, especially post-conflict regions. But there is a danger that British, American and European firms and investors will continue to miss out.

We are ambitious, we aspire to great things. But we are also realistic and aware of our shortcomings and challenges, such as corruption, red tape and inefficiency. We are taking concrete steps to tackle corruption, for example through the PriceWaterhouse Coopers transparency initiative. To increase the efficiency of ourInvestment Board, we are delegating more of our operations to the provincial level, so that we can focus on our vision, and on the strategies that we need to achieve our vision.

Following the signing of the gas deal with Shell and Mitsubishi, the Iraqi Oil Ministry is considering exploiting flared gas at other oilfields, including in Missan [Maysan].

The Minister of Oil, Abdul Karim Luaibi [Abdul-Kareem Elaibi] told AKnews that the Iraqi government is considering projects similar to the Basra Gas Company.

It is noteworthy that Iraq is losing a billion cubic feet of gas per day, mostly in the south. The gas is being burnt off in great burning flares as Iraq's antebellum hydrocarbon infrastructure cannot exploit the gas.

The gas produced is intended to be used in the local market to meet the growing demand for electricity and there is high possibility to export the surplus, with the Basra Gas Company is looking to spend more than $4 billion USD (4,500 billion IQD) on a liquid natural gas export facility.

(Source: AKnews)

According to a report from Tokyo Times, Japan's Minister for Economy, Trade and Industry, Yukio Edano (pictured), has told Nuri al-Maliki of Japans’s desire to work on the development of Iraqi oil fields.

It was reported that a Japanese consortium led by Nippon Oil had been optimistic about securing the right to develop the Nasiriyah oil field located in the southern part of Iraq believed to be rich in oil reserves.

A Japanese official said Maliki had assured Edano of his country’s openness adn full support for Japanese investments.

Economic adviser Salam al-Quraishi said, "The Iraqi government invited 14 Japanese companies to implement projects in the field of energy and providing electricity, 7 to implement residential building projects, 5 companies to develop the oil industry and 8 companies specialized in different investment areas."

Officials affirmed cooperation in the energy and economic fields as well as in the development of infrastructure like railways, harbours and roads.

Edano expressed Japan’s readiness to provide technologies and financial resources for Iraq’s reconstruction efforts.

(Source: Tokyo Times)

(Photo credit: DAJF)

The deputy chairman of Wassit provincial council, Mehdi al-Mussawi, told Aswat al-Iraq that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with an Iranian company to build a 500-megawatt power station on a deferred payment basis, in addition to a 400-bed hospital and 5000 flats housing complex.

The MOU, which the approval of the electricity ministry and the cabinet, includes provision for the training of Iraqi personnel in Iran, and for Iranian physicians to treat Iraqi patients at the new hospital.

(Source: Aswat al-Iraq)

According to a report in the Financial Times, violence is not deterring investment bankers hungry for potentially lucrative deals in Iraq. Over the past year, a trickle of visits from intrepid bankers has turned into a steady stream of senior executives from some of the world's largest financial institutions.

"The international banks can smell the opportunities," says Shwan Taha, an Iraqi who formerly worked for the family office of hedge fund manager George Soros, and returned to Iraq in 2007 to set up Rabee Securities, now one of the country's largest brokerages. "More and more bankers are flying in, and more will continue to come."

The head of a major private security company says he has seen a noticeable increase in visits by investment bankers in the past four to five months, and offers to provide secure accommodation and personal security details, including close protection. He says, "the biggest single threat to those kind of people is really kidnap - that's obviously a fairly nasty outcome".

It's the oil revenues and reconstruction that are enticing bankers. Some estimate that the total bill for investments in oil and gas infrastructure, electricity, healthcare, sewage and roads will total more than $500bn in the coming decades.

The planned listing of Iraq's three phone companies could almost double the market's size of the stock exchange (currently about $3.5bn) if they go through as proposed.

Yet despite all its promise, bankers concede that Iraq is fraught with potential pitfalls.

The President of Iraqi Kurdistan said on Wednesday that the region will go ahead with its exploration deal with U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil despite objections from Baghdad.

According to Reuters, Masoud Barzani (pictured) said Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was told of the deal prior to its signing and had no objection, and called Baghdad's opposition unconstitutional.

"The contract is not unconstitutional. Yes, we have signed with Exxon Mobil according to the constitution ... the objection that we heard from some officials is what is unconstitutional," he told the news agency in an interview.

"We are committed to the deal and we will execute it without caring about what some officials in Baghdad say, which is against the constitution."

Exxon has not commented publicly on the agreement and Iraqi oil officials say the company has not responded to their requests for an explanation.

Despite the silence from Exxon, the U.S. State Department commented on the deal, saying it hoped Iraq and Exxon could resolve the dispute in a way that would not undercut the future development of Iraqi oil resources.

Barzani said the Exxon deal would benefit all of Iraq, not just the Kurdish region. He said he was surprised at Baghdad's recent warning against the deal.

"It is strange really, and has no meaning. For us, it doesn't mean anything. At the first step, I sent a message to the prime minister and informed him of all the details. The answer I got back was that there was no objection... Before the signing, yes."

"The oil policy in Iraq is a failed policy, I say it clearly. Ask the Iraqi people where are the oil refineries? ... How many hours of electricity are available for the Iraqi citizen in the center and south? And Iraq lives on a sea of oil," he said.

"If it is not a failed policy, then what is the reason?" he asked.

 (Source: Reuters)