KTFA:

Clare:  A delegation from the regional government will visit Baghdad tomorrow, and two laws are on its agenda

8/13/2023

The spokesman for the Kurdistan Regional Government, Bishwa Hawrami, announced that a delegation from the Kurdistan government will visit Baghdad this week.

 Hawrami said, in a press statement, that: "A delegation from the Kurdistan Regional Government will visit Baghdad on Tuesday (August 15) to discuss the implementation of the financial budget law."

He explained that "the delegation will discuss the oil and gas law in Baghdad, and will include representatives of the Ministry of Natural Resources and experts in oil and gas." 

It is noteworthy that a delegation from the political bureau of the Kurdistan Democratic Party arrived in Baghdad on August 7, and held meetings with the coordination framework and Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani, which focused on the non-implementation of the agreements under which the current government was formed.

On August 5, the Ministry of Oil said, after a meeting that included Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein and Oil Minister Hassan Abdul Ghani, a delegation from the Kurdistan region, governors of oil-producing provinces, and advisors to the prime minister, that the meeting came as part of the legislative reform package that came in the government curriculum, specifically what came in the twenty-third axis. Regarding the preparation of a draft oil and gas law to expedite the completion of this project and with the participation of all relevant parties in this strategic national project. 

The meeting discussed, according to the statement, "the importance and objectives of the law and the need to implement it as soon as possible, with the participation of the region, oil-producing governorates and representatives of the Prime Minister's Office," noting that the atmosphere of the meeting was positive. 

The meeting resulted in the following recommendations:

1- Forming committees to follow up on this issue and organizing subsequent meetings.

2- A working paper is presented by the committees on the basis of the vision presented by the ministry, the Kurdistan Regional Government and the producing provinces in light of the discussions that took place during the meeting and the previous discussions to be studied by these committees, leading to the preparation of the final draft of the oil and gas law.

Since 2007, the oil and gas bill has been sent to parliament 3 times, political differences preventing it from being passed each time.

Besides the 2007 draft, the Iraqi government prepared two projects in 2008 and 2011.

The first draft of the oil and gas law, prepared in 2007 by the Iraqi government, consisted of 43 articles, and disagreements between the Kurdistan Regional Government and the federal government prevented its approval.  

The draft stipulated the formation of a federal council for oil and gas by the Iraqi government that would determine the oil policy in Iraq, in which the Kurdistan region would be represented with the rank of minister.  

In 2011, the Iraqi parliament discussed a draft oil and gas law consisting of 49 articles, without being able to pass it either. 

It is noteworthy that the Federal Supreme Court ruled on (February 15, 2022) the "unconstitutionality" of the oil and gas law approved by the Kurdistan Parliament in 2007, obligating the Kurdistan Region to hand over its oil to the federal government.  LINK

************

Turk182:  IMHO - They have no other choice than to change the value of their Iraqi dinar NOW, they don’t have the luxury of kicking the can down the road any longer.

Too many contracts/MUA’s are Have been executed and can no longer sign in a pause mode.

the Iraqi Citizens can no longer wait for what they were PROMISED…THE TIME IS NOW

Texas2018:  Turk182, I agree and hope you are correct.  Prime Minister Al-Sudani set a timeline for Tuesday to begin implementation of service projects.  He put out a timeframe for the operational and investment portion on August 24th.  I presume those dates will start the allocation process.  Hopefully, the distribution and expenditure stages follow quickly.   I believe Walkingstick informed Frank the budget opening will initiate the monetary rate change. Hopefully, the CBI will finally take their foot off the private sector's throat.

************

Turk182: Iraqi Tripartite Budget for (2023, 2024 & 2025) - OFFICIALLY Posted in Gazette on Monday, June 26th, 2023

For Those Kids keeping score at home:
 
From and including: Monday, June 26, 2023
To, but not including Monday, August 14, 2023

Result: 49 days

It is 49 days from the start date to the end date, but not including the end date.

Or 1 month, 19 days excluding the end date.

49 days can be converted to one of these units:

4,233,600 seconds

70,560 minutes

1176 hours

49 days

7 weeks

13.42% of 2023

The Iraqi Government gives new meaning to the phrase, "At A Snails Pace"

Clare:  State banks are looking into internal systems and automation

8/13/2023

 The Director General of Al-Rafidain Bank, Maher Hussein Rashid Agency, chaired today, Sunday, a meeting in the general administration of the bank, which included the Director-General of the Legal Department in the Ministry of Finance, Muhammad Hamza Mustafa, and the directors of some government banks, in the presence of representatives of the Central Bank of Iraq.

A statement by the Rafidain Bank, of which {Euphrates News} received a copy, said, "The meeting reviewed what has been achieved in terms of the draft internal regulations for government banks and the observations that were put forward at the previous meeting, in accordance with the directives of the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Iraq."

The director of the Rafidain Bank confirmed, according to the statement, that "the goal of changing the internal regulations of government banks is to open broad horizons for the bank's dealings internally and externally, and to introduce modern electronic systems and automation within the framework of institutional governance and drawing up financial policy in the country and benefiting from technologies that contribute to the speedy completion of transactions and their development to serve interest of the bank and its customers.

The statement continued, "The meeting opened the door for discussions and interventions aimed at addressing gaps related to the draft internal system for government banks and keeping pace with international banking updates."    LINK

***************

Clare:  International companies in the Kurdistan Region urge respect for their rights when enacting the oil and gas law

8/14/2023 Baghdad

Today, Monday, the Kurdistan Oil Industry Association (IPCOR) called on the governments of Baghdad and Erbil to preserve the contractual rights in the new oil and gas law to be enacted.

The union, which represents companies including “DNO”, “Genel Energy”, “Gulf Keystone Petroleum”, “HKN Energy” and “ShaMaran Petroleum”, said in a statement received by “Al-Iqtisad News”, we urge the integration of the rights of companies in the Iraqi budget and any laws Futurism governing oil and gas in federal Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.

"It is essential for the future of the industry in these regions, and the many jobs that support them, that the outcome of the negotiations include recovery of costs and profits to which international oil companies are entitled under existing production sharing contracts," he added.

The Kurdistan Regional Government and the Iraqi federal government held a meeting on the fifth of August to discuss drafting a new oil and gas law. During the meeting, they agreed to form a committee to draft an oil and gas law to help resolve the dispute over the constitutional rights of the Kurdistan Region over oil and revenues.

Since 2005, the Iraqi Parliament has not been able to pass the draft law and the Kurdistan Region approved its own law and began its independent export through Turkey.

The dispute between Baghdad and Erbil over oil exports escalated last March, when the Court of Arbitration in Paris ruled against independent oil exports to Kurdistan under its 2007 law, prompting Turkey to halt oil exports via the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline (ITP).

So far, talks between Baghdad, Erbil and Ankara have failed to find a solution to resume oil exports. Moreover, according to the Iraqi budget law, the Kurdistan Region is required to deliver 400,000 barrels of oil per day.

A representative of the "IPCOR" consortium said in a statement to "Standard & Poor's" that the oil companies "want to guarantee their contractual rights, including cost recovery and entitlement to oil, and protect them in the discussions between Erbil and Baghdad."

"The international oil companies in Kurdistan must be compensated for the real costs, just as they are in federal Iraq. Our investments have fully funded the entire sector and there are solutions that will guarantee future foreign investment in the Iraqi energy sector," he added.

He pointed out that "the PSC (professional standards) model used in the Kurdistan Region has a competitive investment structure that is widely used in oil regions around the world."

He continued, "Within the framework of the security companies of the Kurdistan Region, the international oil companies bear all the financial risks, and in the event of success, the Kurdistan Region retains the majority share of the reward."

"To provide international oil companies with confidence in their contractual right to recover costs and receive profit payments from successful projects, the Kurdistan Company PSC model is governed by English law, with disputes settled through international arbitration at the London Court of International Arbitration," said the Epicor consortium.

The oil companies also said that it would not be possible for the Kurdistan Region to provide 400,000 barrels of oil per day to Baghdad, without the international oil companies operating in the Kurdistan Region.

"To achieve this, the Kurdistan Region will depend on production from fields run by the International Olympic Committee," he said.

"Despite the political, security and geological challenges in the region, the sector operated by the ICRC has developed from almost nothing 15 years ago to produce about 250,000 barrels of oil per day," he added.

"As (oil) the most important industry in Kurdistan by far, the oil and gas sector now provides tens of thousands of high-quality jobs directly through the IOCs themselves as well as indirectly through service companies and contractors and in the communities surrounding our operations, homes and offices," he added.

Moreover, due to the cessation of oil exports, foreign companies operating in the Kurdistan Region had to implement cost-cutting measures, which led to staff layoffs.   LINK