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Iraq’s Oil Law Gives International Oil Companies Too Much -VP
Hassan Hafidh, Dow Jones
Iraq’s Vice President Tariq Al Hashimi said Sunday he opposes a draft oil law that is crucial to Iraq’s future because it gives too many concessions to international oil companies and the country’s regions.
“We disagree with the production sharing agreement,” Al Hashimi told Dow Jones. “We want foreign oil companies but not with big privileges.”
Iraq’s government is locked in debate over the draft oil law that must be approved by the country’s parliament. Parliament in Baghdad could take two months before to approve the legislation, Al Hashimi said.
International oil companies such as Royal Dutch Shell Plc, BP Plc and ConocoPhillips are awaiting the legislation that will set a framework for licensing access to Iraq’s vast oil reserves, estimated to be the world’s third biggest.
(21 May 2007)
Kuwait drops peg in body blow to Gulf currency union
Ulf Laessing, Reuters
Kuwait unshackled its dinar from the tumbling U.S. dollar on Sunday and switched the exchange rate mechanism to a basket of currencies, throwing plans for currency union with other Gulf Arab oil producers into disarray.
Kuwait’s central bank, which battled speculators for weeks to defend the peg, said the dollar’s slide against other currencies had forced it to break ranks with fellow Gulf states to contain inflation from the rising cost of some imports.
The move stunned Gulf currency markets and volumes dried up. The impact would be clearer on Monday when international markets open, said Steve Brice, chief middle east economist at Standard Chartered Bank in Dubai.
(20 May 2007)
Traditional production unfit for half of Kuwait’s oil reserves
KUNA via Kuwait Times
KUWAIT: More than half of Kuwait’s oil reserves will not be produced through cheap traditional methods, Deputy Director General of the Kuwait Institution for Scientific Research (KISR) Dr. Nader Al-Awadhi said yesterday. Kuwait’s oil reserves are estimated at about 95 billion barrels, among the biggest worldwide. Most production, if not all, is being produced through traditional methods, Al-Awadhi told a KISR workshop on “Managing Carbon Dioxide for Improving Oil Production” that started yesterday.
He expected that the traditional methods would produce 45 billion barrels, but could not be used for the rest (i.e. 50 billion barrels). Thus, emerges the necessity of developing new feasible environment-friendly methods for producing heavy oils, he said adding that oil production operations over the past years had focused on light oil.
“With the rising rates of consumption, light crude oils are being used up at higher rates”, Al-Awadhi said noting that the heavy oil reserves worldwide are six times light oils.
Production of heavy crude oils is a difficult process that requires fresh techniques and is very costly compared to light crude oils.
(15 May 2007)
Iran: Now We Know
Richard Heinberg, Global Public Media
MuseLetter for March this year, titled, “Iran: We Will Know Soon,” was a summary of the information available at the time regarding the likelihood of a US or Israeli air attack on Iran’s nuclear research facilities-an attack that many informed commentators and analysts have considered very likely.
The most recent news on this score is very good. It appears that efforts to ramp up US military presence in the region in preparation for an attack-or at least to put hard pressure on Iran during upcoming negotiations over the fate of Iraq-have been undermined by none other than George Bush’s nominee to head Central Command (CENTCOM), Admiral William Fallon. According to an article by Gareth Porter in Asia Times Online on May 17, (www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IE17Ak03.html) Fallon “expressed strong opposition in February to an administration plan to increase the number of aircraft-carrier strike groups in the Persian Gulf from two to three and vowed privately that there would be no war against Iran as long as he was chief of CENTCOM, according to sources with access to his thinking.”
At the same time, US policy and rhetoric toward Iran seem to have moderated. Porter suggests that this shift “away from increased military threats and toward diplomatic engagement,” for which “no credible explanation has been offered by administration,” may have resulted from Fallon’s resistance to deploying the carrier task force.
… It looks as though the world has dodged a very nasty bullet, at least for now. …
(20 May 2007)
