Iraq, Royal Dutch Shell to ink gas deal
Baghdad, 22 September 2008 (Associated Press)
Iraq and Royal Dutch Shell PLC on Monday will formally launch plans to invest in a joint venture to tap natural gas in southern Iraq, a government spokesman said.
Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani will sign the deal with executives from the Anglo-Dutch company at the Cabinet’s offices in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, his spokesman said.
A joint venture with the state-run Iraqi South Oil Co. will then be established to invest in natural gas in the southern oil-rich province of Basra, the spokesman Assem Jihad said.
Iraq will control 51 percent of the venture, while Shell will hold the remaining 49 percent in the company, which will exploit flared associated gas for domestic use and exports.
“Financial, legal and technical experts from both sides will start immediately to draw up the plans and basis for the new company that will run this operation,” Jihad told The Associated Press in a phone interview.
“The agreement will help Iraq to make use of about 700 million cubic feet which is being flared everyday to process it and to meet the domestic needs and to export the surplus to the world gas market,” he added.
Basra is Iraq’s second-largest city, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad.
Earlier this month, the Iraqi Cabinet approved the agreement following nearly eight months of discussions between Iraqi oil officials and Shell. Monday’s ceremony will finalize the deal.
Shell is expected to pump $3 billion to $4 billion over five years to gather at least 500-600 million cubic feet of flared gas per day from the southern fields.
The agreement also provides for construction of a number of liquefied natural gas facilities, the statement said.
According to Iraqi oil officials, Iraq loses about $40 million worth of natural gas each day because it is either re-injected into wells or burned due to a lack of sufficient infrastructure to exploit it for consumption or export.
The agreement will be Iraq’s second major hydrocarbon deal since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein after the approval of the $3 billion deal with China to develop the Ahdab oil field in southern Iraq.
Under the contract, China National Petroleum Corp. will develop the field for 20 years. It’s expected to produce up to 25,000 barrels per day after three years, and eventually reach 125,000 barrels per day.
Iraq has the world’s third-largest oil reserves with an estimated 115 billion barrels. It also sits on an estimated 112 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves, according to the ministry.Iraq Updates
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Iraqi’s warmth to Israel exacts a heavy price
Baghdad, 23 September 2008 (Associated Press)
First his two sons were murdered. Now he faces prosecution. The reason for Mithal Al Alusi’s troubles? Visiting Israel and advocating peace with the Jewish state – something Iraq’s leaders refuse to consider.
The Iraqi is at the centre of a political storm after his fellow lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to strip him of his immunity and allow his prosecution for visiting Israel – a crime punishable by death under a 1950s-era law. Such a fate is unlikely for Al Alusi, though he may lose his party’s sole seat in parliament.
Because he had visited Israel, many Iraqis assume the maverick legislator was the real target of the assassins who killed his sons in 2005 while he escaped unharmed.
Now he is in trouble for again visiting Israel and attending a conference a week ago at the International Institute for Counterterrorism.
“He wasn’t set to speak, but he was in the audience and conversed with a lecturer on a panel about insurgency and terrorism in Afghanistan, Iraq and Israel,” said conference organiser Eitan Azani. “We didn’t invite him. He came on his own initiative.”
Al Alusi has a German passport, allowing him to travel without visa restrictions imposed on other Iraqis. Lawmakers accused him of humiliating the nation with a trip to the ‘enemy’ state.
The uproar shows how far Iraq has moved from the early US goal of creating a democracy that would make peace with Israel and remove a critical force from the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The US Embassy declined comment. “It is an issue for the Iraqi parliament, not the US Mission to Iraq,” said spokesman Armand Cucciniello.
“What has happened was a catastrophe for democracy,” Al Alusi said in an interview in his Baghdad home. “Within an hour, the parliament became the policeman, the investigator, the judge, the government and the law. It was a sham trial.”
Al Alusi said he went to Israel to seek international support for Iraq as it struggles against terrorism, and insisted that the outcry reflects Iranian meddling in Iraq’s internal affairs – an accusation often levelled by Sunnis like himself against Iraq’s mostly Shiite neighbour.
“Iran is behind Hamas and Hezbollah and many other terrorist organisations. Israelis are suffering like me, like my people. So we need to be together,” he said. “Peace will have more of a chance.”
Iraq sent troops to three Arab wars against Israel, and fired Scud missiles at it in the 1991 Gulf War. It remains technically at war with the Jewish state. Iraq’s once-thriving Jewish community has shrivelled to just a few people, most having fled after Israel was founded in 1948.
Allegation
“Al Alusi has insulted the hundreds of Iraqi martyrs who fell while fighting the Israelis,” said Osama Al Nujeifi, a Sunni lawmaker. “It was a provocative visit to a historical enemy.”
In Al Alusi’s living room, decorated with rugs and paintings, his two dead sons, aged 19 and 29, smile from a photo hanging next to a grandfather clock.
Al Alusi said Iraq should follow Jordan and Egypt in seeking peace with Israel, especially since Syria is moving in that direction. He insists Israel would have to make concessions to the Palestinians.
“We should act now because if the Syrian-Israel talks succeed, this means that Iraq will be isolated,” he said. “It’s the right time to open a new phase with Israel.”
US presidential race: Palin to meet Talabani
Seeking to bolster her foreign policy credentials, Sarah Palin, the Alaska governor who Republican presidential nominee John McCain picked to be his running mate earlier this month, will meet with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani tomorrow. Iraq Updates
The meetings will take place on the fringes of the annual UN General Assembly in New York.
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PM: terrorism page will end as previous regime ended
Baghdad, 22 September 2008 (Al-Sabaah)
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has indicated that terrorism and crime page would be ended for ever as darkness of the previous regime had been ended.
Al-Maliki confirmations came during holding feasting for 75 orphans of martyrs’ sons and presenting several presents to them as well as gave them money on the occasion of holy Ramadan month and the advent of holy al-Fitar Id.
Iraqi PM said “crimes committed by terrorists resulted many children prevented from fatherhood’s kindness, but they will never be prevented from the society and state kindness which will provide to them all their need and work to raise them in a good manner to be capable to realize their dreams and be good individuals in the society. Iraq Updates