Monday AM Iraq Economic News Highlights 11-28-22

Finance Committee: The Amount Of The Budget Will Reach 150 Trillion Dinars, With A Deficit Of 100%

Posted On2022-11-28 By Sotaliraq   Baghdad / Firas Adnan    The Parliamentary Finance Committee suggested that the total amounts of the budget law be 150 trillion dinars, pointing out that the deficit will not exceed 10%, and talked about the possibility of including 75,000 job degrees for holders of higher degrees and first graduates from universities, indicating that the government will finish discussions on the law and send it to parliament early next year.

"The government is working on a daily basis to complete the country's general budget as soon as possible, as well as files for improving basic services and the Iraqi economic situation," Deputy Secretary-General of the Council of Ministers Farhad Nematullah said in an official statement yesterday.

In addition, a member of the committee, Representative Mueen Al-Kadhimi, stated that “the current government headed by Muhammad Shia’a Al-Sudani was formed on the 27th of last month, which means that its age has just exceeded 30 days.”

Al-Kazemi added, “Al-Sudani, upon assuming his duties, assigned the Ministries of Finance and Planning to draft the budget law, and directed that it be submitted as soon as possible.”

He pointed out, "The Ministry of Finance estimates the operating expenses, while the Ministry of Planning estimates the expenditures on the investment side, and it pertains to the projects of the ministries and governorates."

Al-Kazemi pointed out, "These two ministries are working on completing the ministries' sums, and after completing the draft, it will be submitted to the Council of Ministers in accordance with the constitutional and legal contexts."

And he talked about “a discussion that will get the law in the Council of Ministers, in which political opinions will be presented, some of which are related to the Kurdistan region and the Iraqi components, and some amendments may be made to the articles.”

Al-Kazemi expects that "this process will end soon in order to present the project to Parliament early next year, with the hope of legislating it."

He warned, "The political blocs will not spend much time discussing, as they agree to support the government with legislation that helps implement the curriculum, and the most prominent of these legislations is the budget."

Al-Kadhimi stressed, "The budget is supposed to translate primarily the ministerial platform, which won the confidence of the House of Representatives, in conjunction with the passing of the government."

And the member of the Finance Committee continues, “Al-Sudani has emphasized many aspects, including health, electricity and energy,” stressing that “these files are supposed to be clear in the budget.”

Al-Kazemi called for “allocating more funds for investment projects and infrastructure issues,” suggesting that “the amount of the budget will reach 150 trillion dinars, so it is assumed that there will be a large percentage of the investment and urban side that is commensurate with the ministerial curriculum.”

And he continues, “The last budget that Iraq legislated was in the year 2021, which witnessed a reproduction of the revenues and expenditures of previous years and did not include a reform program.”

And Al-Kazemi finds that “the situation has changed now, and the street is waiting for the draft budget to include materials that meet ambitions, such as the existence of 75,000 job grades for holders of higher and first degrees since 2003.”

He stressed that "distributing these grades to those who deserve it is the responsibility of the Federal Service Council," noting that "the general situation requires sums of money, especially in addressing the needs of the disadvantaged governorates that have been affected by terrorism."

Al-Kazemi noted, "The current rise in oil prices cannot be relied upon when estimating Iraq's revenues, and the evidence is the relative decline that occurred during the past days," calling for "taking into account the possibilities that may occur in the future, foremost of which is the continued decline in prices."

And he stated, "What was calculated in the 2021 budget is 45 dollars per barrel, with a production of 3 million and 250 thousand barrels per day," stressing that "oil revenues were less than 90 trillion Iraqi dinars."

And Al-Kazemi indicated that, with “calculating the price of a barrel of oil at 75 dollars, the revenues will be 127 trillion Iraqi dinars if production remains the same according to the quota approved by the Organization of Petroleum Producing Countries (OPEC) for Iraq.”

He stated, "The situation requires the government to work to diversify revenues, by benefiting from the agricultural and industrial sectors and controlling customs and tax revenues."

And he went on to say that “the current government is serious about diversifying sources of revenue and not relying on a clear source,” stressing “the need for us to have a strategy in the next stage and cooperation from all to advance it.”

And Al-Kazemi went on, speaking about “the possibility of a 10 trillion dinars deficit in the 2023 budget, taking into account that this year is the first in which Iraq does not have indebtedness towards Kuwait.”

For his part, another member of the committee, Atwan Al-Atwani, stated that “Parliament has contact with the government in order to ripen the budget law.”

Al-Atwani added, "There are aspirations that the Council of Ministers will finalize the law and send it to parliament early next year."

He pointed out, "All parliamentary blocs are ready to discuss and study the law through the first reading and the report of the Finance Committee, leading to a vote on it."

Al-Atwani concluded, “The legislative term will begin on the ninth of next month, and after that we will enter a one-month recess only,” expressing his hope that “this period will be sufficient for the government to complete all the provisions of the law.”

Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani had stressed, during a meeting on the budget two days ago, “the need to complete the draft budget law as quickly as possible and submit it to the House of Representatives in order for it to enter into force without delay.”

Al-Sudani added, according to a government statement received by (Al-Mada), that “the law targets, in its allocations, the priorities adopted by the ministerial curriculum, which are combating unemployment, reducing poverty rates, combating corruption, upgrading services, as well as reforming the economy.”

The statement indicated, "Al-Sudani directed that the draft budget law take into account the importance of presenting infrastructure projects over other projects."   LINK

International Report: Iraq Seeks To Produce 7 Million Barrels Of Oil In 2027

Posted On2022-11-28 By Sotaliraq    Translated by: Hamed Ahmed  An international report stated that Iraq is seeking to reach its oil production to 7 million barrels per day in 2027, but it spoke of the need to take fundamental measures and changes in the industrial sector.

A report by international economist Simon Watkins, published on the (OilPrice) website for oil and energy news, stated that “Iraq had previously set different production ceilings for oil that it intends to achieve in its future strategic plans to increase production, which ranged between 6 million barrels per day as well as 7 million barrels per day and sometimes Another 8 million barrels per day.

The report, which was translated by (Al-Mada), added that “analyses of facts and figures lead to the conclusion that this goal cannot be achieved without making fundamental changes in the oil industry sector.”

He pointed out, “The general manager of the Oil Marketing Company, Sumo, Alaa Al-Yasiri, said last week: that Iraq is seeking to achieve an oil production ceiling of 7 million barrels per day, by the year 2027.”

And the report indicated that “the economist Watkins says that this time it may be different, and that what makes it different from previous promises and future plans to increase production is that the Iraqis are now focusing their efforts on increasing production from two main oil fields, which are Rumaila and West Qurna 2.”

Watkins continued, "The Russian and Chinese oil companies working in developing these two fields have nothing to hinder them from making this goal come true." Watkins stressed, "One of the main reasons that prevented Iraq from achieving the previously planned goal of reaching production of 13 million barrels per day now is bureaucracy and corruption, which led to the withdrawal of Western international oil companies such as Exxon Mobil from the Iraqi oil sector."

And the report continues, “The International Transparency Index has always ranked Iraq in its annual report among the ten most corrupt countries in the world in a list of 180 countries,” noting that “embezzlement, brokering, money laundering, bureaucracy, red tape, and bribes in its government institutions made the country bottom of the list.” Corruption in the world.

He talked about "political interference in anti-corruption bodies, the politicization of corruption issues, and the lack of resources that restrict the government's ability to combat rampant corruption effectively."

And the report stated, “Iraq had launched in 2013 the unified national energy strategy, which planned to increase Iraq’s production of crude oil to reach the set goal of 13 million barrels per day by 2017.” And he continued, “After five years of that drawn goal, it was reduced to 10 million barrels per day, then it was reduced to 9 million barrels per day by the year 2020, and after that the drawn scenario was to reach 6 million barrels by the year 2020.”

The report stressed that "these figures were based on well-established facts and figures from several reliable local and foreign sources."

He explained, “A detailed study conducted by the (Petrolog Oil and Gas) company in 1997 showed that the undiscovered oil reserves in the country amount to approximately 215 billion barrels.”

And the report went on, “The Chinese Oil Engineering Construction Company is developing the giant Rumaila oil field, as it signed in the middle of last month a construction and engineering implementation contract worth $386 million to build two oil processing facilities in the southern part of the Rumaila field.”

He promised, “This field is the largest in Iraq, and the field contains oil reserves estimated at 17 billion barrels, and the field always seeks to produce 2.1 million barrels per day, compared to the current production rate of 1.4 million barrels per day, with an increase rate of about 0.7 million barrels per day.”

The report quotes “a source close to the Ministry of Oil as saying: China intends, during the next six months, to significantly increase the water pumping capacity in the Rumaila field, which was originally based on the project of a pumping station from Lake Karma Ali established by British Petroleum.”

He continued, “The current capacity of the treatment pump is approximately 1.3 to 1.4 million barrels per day of lake water, which allows this to extract more crude oil from the field, estimated at three times the amount extracted in 2010, and based on oil industry figures, it is necessary to extract a barrel of oil.” One requires pumping 1.4 barrels of water.”

The report spoke about "Lukoil's attempt to increase production quantities from the West Qurna-2 field, and the Iraqi government demanded at the time that the company increase production in the field."

And he stated, “This is done in three stages from 400 thousand barrels per day to 480 thousand, and then adding another quantity by 650 thousand, to reach 1.13 million barrels, as a goal set for the third stage.”

The report noted that "Iraq could obtain an increase in crude oil production from the West Qurna-2 field at a rate of 0.25 million barrels per day within weeks."

The report indicated, "another quantity extracted from the Rumaila field at a rate of 0.7 million barrels per day, and this would increase the total extracted quantity by 0.95 million barrels per day within a period of months."

He stressed, "This is in addition to the amount of crude extracted last October, amounting to 4.561 million barrels per day, to reach 5.511 million barrels per day."    LINK

Deputy: The Recovery Of 182 Billion Dinars Is A "Message" And This Is Its Content

political| 01:35 - 11/28/2022    Special - Mawazine News   , the representative of the State of Law Coalition, Muhammad Al-Sayhoud, considered, on Monday, that the action taken by the government with the accused, Nour Zuhair, in recovering the stolen money, was "correct and proper."

Al-Saihoud told Mawazine News, "The step to recover 182 billion dinars is not correct in only one direction in recovering the money stolen in the deal of the century. Rather, it is a message that all the money stolen from the state will be recovered."

He added, "This step is considered the main step in combating financial and administrative corruption, and the most important thing is to recover the money. If the laws were implemented by imprisoning the accused only, then the money would not have been recovered."

Yesterday, Sunday, the Sudanese Prime Minister, Muhammad Shia'a, announced the recovery of part of the stolen money from the tax secretariats.

Al-Sudani said in a press conference that "part of the stolen money has been recovered from the tax secretariats," noting that "the competent authorities were able to recover the first batch of more than 182 billion dinars." Ended 29/N33    https://www.mawazin.net/Details.aspx?jimare=212623

Khazali Calls On The Government To Expedite Sending A "Controversial And Important" Bill To Parliament

Political | 09:54 - 11/28/2022   Baghdad - Mawazine News   The Parliamentary Oil and Energy Committee called, on Monday, on the government to expedite sending the oil and gas law because of its importance in resolving problems with the Kurdistan region, noting that the completion of the law comes within the program of the new government.

Committee member MP Faleh Khazali said, "The oil and gas law is one of the most important and prominent laws over which many disputes occurred, especially between the Kurdistan region and the federal government," noting that "it has become imperative for the government to implement it, after the Federal Court rejected the law adopted by the Kurdistan Regional Parliament." 2007 to regulate the oil and gas sector.

Al-Khazali expressed his hope that "the government will send it as soon as possible, according to the government program presented by Prime Minister Muhammad Shia'a Al-Sudani," pointing out that "the members of his committee are keen to proceed with this project because of its importance and connection to the lives of citizens and a solution to outstanding problems related to sovereignty in the file." Oil and Gas and Control of Federal Revenue".

And Al-Khazali said in an interview with the official newspaper, "Al-Sabah", which was followed by Mawazine News, that "the law did not originally come from the government to return to it, but rather it was previously present and was withdrawn in the second round, and the matter remained pending." Ended 29/N33    https://www.mawazin.net/Details.aspx?jimare=212601