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Citadel Capital reports that it has concluded a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Petroleum Ministry of Iraq to build a 150,000-barrel-of-oil-per-day (BOPD) complex petroleum refinery in Iraq.

Under the terms of the MOU, the Ministry of Petroleum would guarantee the refinery its feedstock and purchase the refined products under a 25-year off-take agreement at international prices.

The MOU gives Citadel Capital three years to complete all project studies, including technical, environmental and financial, among others; and allows Citadel Capital to build fuel stations and electricity generation plants. The new 150 million square meter refinery will take up to four years to construct and would enjoy tax breaks as accorded by relevant Iraqi laws.

Iraq Business News understands that the deal relates to the new facility in Mosul announced last week by the the Egyptian Qalaa company.

The Iraqi Electricity Ministry announced on Monday that eight small diesel-powered electricity generators have been completed and are ready to start producing a total of 240 MW of power.

Ministry spokesman Musab al-Mudarres told AKnews that the stations are First Northern Baghdad, Jadiriya, First Qurna, Second Qurna, al-Farabi, Falluja, Ramadi, and Balad. Each of them will generate 30 MW.

"The project of establishing other stations at Kadhimiya, Dawra, Second Northern Baghdad, and Second Jadiriya will be completed at the middle of next September and will add [another] 120 MW to the grid."

(Source: AKnews)

Baghdad provincial council announced on Thursday that it has allocated 50 billion Iraqi dinars ($40 million) from its budget to purchase 360 electricity generators to be distributed throughout the capital in order to reduce the acute shortage of energy, noting that these generators, with the help of civil generators, will provide 2200 MW for the capital.

AKnews reports that the provincial council began the distribution of 44 generators, with sizes from 50 to 500 KW, in various areas including Abu Ghoreib, Taji and Tarmiyah in the neighborhoods of Baghdad beside Karkh and Rusafa.

"The initial plan includes the distribution of 360 generators. Larger generators will be distributed to hospitals, water and sewer projects."

The Iraqi government announced last May that it will allocate $400 million to provide the owners of civil and government generators with free oil in order that they can commit themselves to run 12 hours a day, confirming that oil will be paid for by the Ministry of Finance or deducted from the imports of the oil ministry at the end of this year.

(Source: AKnews)

The electricity, trade, defense and interior ministries have been identified as the most corrupt of the country's ministries, the Integrity Committee in parliament.

Iraq's Integrity Commission has announced that it has opened an investigation into corruption in the Iraqi Defense Ministry

AKnews reports that the investigation relates to all of the department's dealings since 2003, especially relating to the purchase of arms.

Committee member Aziz al-Ukaili told the news agency that the Commission is unable to follow up all of the cases of corruption in all ministries, since the ministries include “persons that can be hardly detected."

The 2010 corruption index published by Transparency International put Iraq third from bottom in the perception of corruption.

Earlier this year, Iraqi authorities arrested a high-ranking police official in connection with the purchase of "ADE651" bomb detection devices, purchased from a British-based company, which were described as practically useless.

(Source: AKnews)

The Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs, Hussein al-Shahristani, has been nominated to the post of Acting Minister of Electricity, along with his current post, the semi-official Iraqiya TV Satellite Station reported on Wednesday.

“Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has assigned his Deputy for Energy Afffairs, Hussein al-Shahristani, to hold the administration of the Minister of Electricity on an acting basis,” the TV Station said, according to Aswat al-Iraq.

Prime Minister Maliki had sacked his Electricity Minister, Raad Shallal, on August 17, following the exposure of questionable contracts for electricity generation, valued at $1.7 billion.

(Source: Aswat al-Iraq)

An Amman-based freight company has won a tender to transport 30,000 metric tons of fuel oil per month from Iraq to Jordan, the nation’s official news agency Petra said.

Bloomberg reports that the company is called 'Mahmoud Al Zoubi for Transport', and that it will charge 37.3 Jordanian dinars ($52.65) per ton, which was the lowest price offered in the tender.

The fuel will be used to generate electricity at the Aqaba Thermal Power Station in the south of Jordan.

Iraq agreed in June to increase daily oil exports to Jordan to 15,000 barrels from 10,000 barrels and supply its neighbour with 30,000 tons of heavy fuel, following attacks on the gas pipeline into Jordan from Egypt.

(Source: Bloomberg)

The Iraqi Electricity Ministry has said that a third Turkish ship will arrive within a few days in the Umm Qasr port (pictured) to supply 108 megawatts of power to Iraq's struggling electricity grid.

A spokesman for the ministry has added that two other Turkish floating power plants off southern Iraq supply a total of 180 megawatts to the country.

(Source: AME Info)

Iraq's Ministry of Electricity said on Wednesday that it had received bids by three foreign companies to build a 1,014 megawatt gas power plant in the town of Taji, 20 km (12 miles) north of Baghdad.

Reuters reports that South Korea's Hyundai Engineering & Construction bid at around $500 million, Egypt's Orascom Construction at $463 million, and a Chinese company offered a bid at $337 million.

The contract is to build a plant with 6 gas units, each with a capacity of 169 MW, which Iraq bought from Siemens in a contract signed in 2008.

"The sums which the companies offered are considered initial figures, they can be negotiated," the ministry said.

(Source: Reuters)

A Jordanian transport company said on Sunday that it won the 'technical side' of a bid to transport 10,000 tons of fuel oil from Iraq to Jordan every day, within an agreement signed between the neighbouring countrries in 2006, according to the KUNA news agency.

Abdussalam Al-Theyabat, owner of the Theyabat Transport and Trading corporation, said his company and two others had passed the technical stage of the bid which included transportation of around 360,000 tons of heavy fuel oil every year from the Beiji [Bayji, Baiji] refinery in Iraq to the Aqaba Thermal station at the Red Sea.

Speaking to KUNA, Al-Theyabat said a government committee would soon open envelopes to see which company had offered the lowest price.

He explained that the heavy fuel oil would be used to generate electricity to replace Egyptian natural gas. Explosions at gas pipelines in the Egyptian border city of Al-Arish have increased Jordan's energy bill by 20 percent in 2011.

Iraq sells oil to Jordan with preferential prices, or USD 18 per barrel less than oil markets. Iraq also sells every ton of heavy fuel oil to Jordan with USD 88.

(Source: KUNA)

The latest scandal at Iraq’s ministry of electricity involves multi-billion dollar “phantom deals” with a German and Canadian company. The minister of energy has been asked to resign. But according to a report from NIQASH, the real story is not as simple as it first appears.

As a long, hot summer continues to overheat the citizens of Baghdad, one of the government ministries that could alleviate some of their pain is in the spotlight once again. With the latest scandal at the Ministry of Electricity, which will most likely result in the dismissal of the current minister, it seems that this government department deserves to sit atop the list of most corrupt government institutions in Iraq.

Despite an ever-changing roster of ministers since the new Iraqi government was formed in 2003, nothing has really changed in terms of electricity supply in Iraq. Most Iraqis still only get a few hours of electricity a day, most local power is currently supplied by the independent owners of generators and Iraqis continue to suffer without their refrigerators and air conditioning in the 50 centigrade-plus summer heat. In fact, during popular protests earlier in the year, a better electricity supply was one thing all the crowds demanded.

Those earlier protests saw the resignation of Karim Wahid the former minister of electricity. And now, after only six months in the job, the next minister also appears to be being forced out of this difficult job.

The latest scandal involves what are coming to be known as the “phantom deals”. How much of the deals really are phantoms and how much is real still appears to be up for debate.

Early in July the Electricity Minister Raad Shalal signed two deals, worth close to US$2 billion in total, for the building of power plants and infrastructure. According to some politicians though, the companies he signed the deals with did not actually exist. One of the companies was a German one, Maschinenbau Halberstadt (MBH) and the other was a Canadian firm, the Canadian Alliance for Power Generation Equipment Inc (CAPGENT).

MBH was awarded a contract worth US$623 million to build five power plants in the Ninawa province within a year’s time. Capgent’s contract was for just over US $1.2 billion and they were assigned to build ten power plants in Iraq in the provinces of Anbar and Salaheddin, also within 12 months.