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IFP News
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Sep 2 2010 12:00AM
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Germany’s RWE stated that it signed a cooperation agreement with the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq that included future gas supply for the Nabucco pipeline project.
Iraqi sources noted that up to 20 billion cubic meters of gas a year could be fed into the pipeline to bring gas to Turkey and Europe. RWE is a shareholder in the $10.1bn Nabucco plan, which aims to cut Europe’s dependence on Russian gas by bringing Caspian region supplies directly to Turkey and Europe.
Source: Thomson Reuters
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Aug 31 2010 12:00AM
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Minister of Natural Resources of Kurdistan region, Ashti Hawrami, announced that his ministry seeks to increase the daily oil production in the region to 3-4 million barrels in the coming four years, noting that revenues will increase during this period to $25 billion.
“The region has 45 billion barrels of oil and 200 trillion cubic meters of natural gas,” Hawrami said at a press conference n Arbil, attended by Aswat al-Iraq news agency, noting that the ministry has prepared a strategy to increase the oil and gas production. “The gas will be exported through Turkey,” he said.
Aswat Al Iraq
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Aug 31 2010 12:00AM
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Iranian car maker, Iran-Khodro (IKCO) has said it will export 31,000 cars to Iraq by the end of 2010, as part of plans to expand its overseas sales in Middle-Eastern countries.
Samand, Peugeot 405, 206 and Roa are the most commonly exported cars to Iraq. IKCO now has 18 dealers and distributors in the Iraqi cities of Erbil, Duhok, Sulaymaniyah and Basra with plans to increase the figure to 29. ...
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Aug 25 2010 12:00AM
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The Government of Iraq, in conjunction with the Netherland’s Royal Dutch Shell and Malaysia’s Petronas, awarded an agreement to the United States’ Halliburton to drill 15 oil wells in Majnoon oilfield, situated in Southern Iraq.
Also, the United Kingdom’s Petrofac secured a two year contract to build two new crude processing plants with a capacity of 50,000 barrels per day (bpd) each and to rehabilitate the existing one. Such deals are part of implementing the preliminary plan to develop the aforementioned oilfield over the next 2 years as per official statements. Compared to the current output of 45,000 bpd, the aim is to eventually increase production to 1.8 million bpd. Petrofac, in charge of designing and building oil and gas infrastructure in addition to training the staff for safety, is expected to start engineering designs, procurement and building new storage and export turbines for the oilfield. Founded in 1919, Halliburton is one of the world’s largest providers of products and services to the oil and gas industry. The company serves the upstream oil and gas industry from locating hydrocarbons and managing geological data, to drilling and formation evaluation, well construction and completion, and optimizing production through the life of the field....
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Aug 23 2010 12:00AM
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Foreign investors are still put off by violence in Iraq but most companies believe the security situation will improve, despite the withdrawal of international troops, a new study found.
A survey of more than 300 senior executives by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) found that seven years after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, 64 percent thought it was still too dangerous to do business in Iraq.
But there was optimism about the future, according to provisional results seen by AFP, with 55 percent saying they believed the security situation for foreign executives and employees would improve over the next two years.
This is despite the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country—Britain pulled out its combat soldiers last year, while the United States withdrew its last combat brigade last week, although 50,000 troops will remain.
According to the EIU survey, which will be published next month, violence was the biggest business risk for 67 percent of respondents, followed by corruption (44 percent) and the lack of infrastructure (35 percent).
Iraq’s oil and gas reserves were the most attractive aspect of the country for investors, but after this, 43 percent said construction and real estate was the most promising non-hydrocarbon sector, followed by consumer goods (23 percent) and healthcare and pharmaceuticals (18 percent).
The EIU surveyed 367 senior executives from 52 countries about their perceptions of investment in Iraq. They work for 80 companies currently investing in Iraq and 32 companies that are considering it.
AFP
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Aug 20 2010 12:00AM
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Dr Sami Al Araji, chairman of Iraq’s National Authority for Investment has said the government has selected 35 international firms to build one million new housing units across the country, Arabic Al Sabah newspaper has reported.
The $50bn project will include 244,000 units in the capital, Baghdad, 80,000 in Basra, and 100,000 in Mosul with the remaining units to be constructed in other provinces, including the Kurdistan region, according to population density. The project is expected to be completed after two years of signing the contracts, which is expected to take place within the next three months, Al Araji said....
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Aug 19 2010 12:00AM
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The Iraqi subsidiary of UK bank HSBC is eyeing opportunities to fund infrastructure projects as the country is being rebuilt, while the lender gradually opens more branches, the unit’s chief executive said, in an interview for Reuters.
As Iraq’s economy recovers slowly after years of violence since the US-led war in 2003, regional and some international banks are establishing a presence in the country as they hope to capture some of its long-term, mostly oil-driven growth.
“Iraq is at the next stage of development, we’re moving beyond security considerations and into the economic recovery. And the banking sector is an interesting proxy for the wider economy,” said James Hogan, chief executive for HSBC in Iraq.
HSBC re-entered Iraq in 2005 when it bought 70 per cent of local lender Dar Es Salaam bank, which has 16 branches across the country and has plans to open an additional four to six in the next 12 to 18 months, Hogan said.
The UK banking giant was active in Iraq at the beginning of the previous century, originally operating as the Imperial Bank of Persia, until the country’s lenders were nationalized in 1964.
Iraq’s banking sector comprises seven state-owned banks and 36 private lenders, which are expected to gradually consolidate, especially after Iraqi regulators requested that all banks increase their minimum capital to 250 billion Iraqi dinars [$210m] by 2014.
In the case of HSBC’s subsidiary, the new capital requirement means its current capital base of 57 billion dinars will be increased five-fold in the next five years, Hogan said.
Iraq’s economic prospects are largely dependent on oil- and gas-related income, but the government is expected to spend heavily on the country’s infrastructure, offering opportunities to lenders like HSBC.
“Once we have a new government in place, they will likely focus on the budget for next year, and we will see capital spending largely being driven by new infrastructure such as road projects, the need for cement, and building a telecommunications infrastructure,” Hogan said.
HSBC is currently working with an international organization, which it did not name, that is buying up cement plants in Iraq for which it hopes to be the arranger and lender, Hogan said.
Most of the infrastructure spending is still government-led but a private sector is slowly emerging, providing potential new sources of income to the banks operating there.
(Source: Reuters)
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Aug 18 2010 12:00AM
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The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Iraq announced on Thursday that the Lebanese International University (LIU) is to build a campus in Baghdad during the coming academic year, according to a report from AKnews.
“The Ministry signed a memorandum of understanding with the LIU to open a branch in Baghdad”, said Suham al-Shujairi from the ministry’s PR department.
“The convention signed between the ministry and the Lebanese University will serve the educational and scientific sectors in Iraq for the future”, she said, pointing out that, “The Lebanese University already has several branches in various Arabic countries”.
“This memorandum will be a positive step in strengthening relations with the Lebanon and establishing joint scientific conferences between the two countries”, Shujari concluded.
The LIU was established in 2001 by the former Lebanese Defense and Education Minister, Mr. Abdul Rahim Mourad. The language of tuition in the university is English and there are now branches in “more than nine” (sic) countries around the world.
(Source: AKnews)
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Aug 15 2010 12:00AM
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Figures released by the Central Bank of Jordan indicate that credit facilities extended by commercial banks operating in Jordan totaled JD13.9bn at the end of June 2010, constituting an increase of 4.3% from end-2009 and a rise of 6.2% year-onyear.
The resident private sector accounted for 90.5% of the total relative to 90% a year earlier, followed by the non-resident private sector with 9.5% compared to 10% at end-June 2009, public entities with 2.2%, the central government with 0.3%, and financial institutions with 0.04%. Foreign currency lending accounted for 11.7% of total lending, down from 14% at the end of June 2009. The distribution of lending by sector shows that general trade represented JD3.25bn, or 23.4% of the total, up from 22.6% a year earlier. It was followed by construction with JD3.2bn, or 22.7% of the total, up from 18.6% at end-June 2009 industry with JD1.86bn, or 13.4% of overall lending public services & utilities with JD1bn or 7.5% of the total transportation services with JD479m or 3.4% of credits financial services with JD355m or 26% tourism, hotels & restaurants with JD445m, or 3.2% of the total and agriculture with JD216m, or 1.6% of overall lending. Further, other lending accounted for JD3bn, or 21.7% of total credits, of which JD443m were extended to buy shares. In parallel, loans & advances totaled JD11.9bn of overall credit, followed by overdrafts with JD1.7bn, and discounted bills & bonds with JD290m.
Source: Central Bank of Jordan, Byblos Research
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Aug 14 2010 12:00AM
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Iran has been authorized to export natural gas to political ally Syria and the Mediterranean area, transiting its neighbor Iraq, a senior Iranian oil ministry official said.
“In a recent meeting with Iraqi officials, that country’s oil and power ministers announced that their government had issued a permit for the transit,” the semi-official ISNA news agency quoted Javad Oji, deputy oil minister and the head of the National Iranian Gas Company, as saying.
Oji said Iran would use its sixth transnational gas pipeline network, segments of which are still under construction, for the exports. The pipeline has a capacity of 110 million cubic meters a day of which 50 million are earmarked for domestic consumption, leaving around 60 million for export.
Iraq’s daily gas need is estimated at 7-10 million cubic meters, including what is required for power generation plants, Oji said.
Although it is the second biggest crude exporter within OPEC and sits on the second largest natural gas reserves after Russia, Iran’s gas export targets have been hindered by U.N. and U.S. sanctions that block access to western technology needed to develop its gas exporter.
Reuters
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