"Tidbits From TNT" Saturday AM 11-6-2021

Nov 6

TNT:

Tishwash: Al-Kazemi's "white paper" program is the password for economic recovery in Iraq..

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi led the process of economic reform in Iraq, as he presented an ambitious plan that would help the Iraqi economy out of its crisis, restore its regional role and improve the management of the financial situation.

Al-Kazemi took confident steps to implement the "white paper" program to reduce public expenditures. This program is based on the restructuring of government, local and foreign debt.

This program is also based on reducing wages and salaries, restructuring the public salary scale in the state, and gradually stopping the funding of the pension fund from the budget.

Reducing subsidies to state-owned companies by 30% annually for a period of 3 years, and continuing to fight corruption by activating the program to recover smuggled and stolen funds link

Tishwash: Iraq's "West Qurna 1": An oil report monitors America's exit and China's hegemony

The British "Oil Price" website, which specializes in energy issues, addressed how the United States lost control of an Iraqi oil field, considered among the largest in the world.

The website indicated in a report translated by Shafak News Agency; He indicated that prior to his visit to Washington in August 2020, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi promised then US President Donald Trump, to proceed with a large set of initially agreed contracts, with American companies, with a large presence of American security personnel. to protect it.

The website pointed out that the stated intention of this initiative on the part of the United States is to draw a line in front of the great progress of China and Russia, towards what were the areas of American influence in the Middle East.

With regard to Iraq, he was seeking, through his pledge, to speed up obtaining a new American exemption to continue importing gas and electricity from Iran and to avoid Washington cutting financial aid and imposing sanctions against Baghdad.

The report considered; The approval last week of a $480 million deal for US oilfield services giant Schlumberger to drill 96 oil wells in the giant West Qurna 1 field fits perfectly with this framework of constant manipulation by Iraq with the United States and China. .

He added that this also applies to the news that the American "Halliburton" company is negotiating about bids to buy the long troublesome share of "Exxon Mobil" in this field.

He pointed out that the "West Qurna 1" field is located about 65 kilometers from the main oil and export center of Basra in southern Iraq, and contains a large part of the reserves estimated at about 43 billion barrels in the giant West Qurna field as a whole.

And he indicated that it was believed before that "West Qurna 1" contains about 9 billion barrels of these reserves, but earlier this year, the Iraqi Oil Ministry stated that it had plans to increase the field's production capacity of crude oil to more than 700 thousand barrels. per day for the next five years on the basis that the field has recoverable reserves of more than 20 billion barrels.

The report explained; Although the field currently produces only about 380,000 barrels per day, the Ministry of Oil says that its current capacity is no less than 500,000 barrels per day, and that the new wells that Schlumberger will drill are aiming to increase about 200,000 barrels per day to this field.

report added; West Qurna 1, like many Iraqi oil fields, benefits from what is considered the lowest extraction cost in the world (about 1-2 US dollars per barrel) and operating cost (excluding capital expenditures), which is on par with the best fields in Saudi Arabia and Iran .

However, the report pointed out that the field suffers from a deficit in pumping enough water to increase the pressure of the reservoir. He pointed out that the steps taken to fix the decreasing pressure in the reservoir through the implementation of the "Common Sea Water Supply Project" (CSSP) have not achieved results so far, noting that it can be said that "ExxonMobil", which is the only company in the world capable of Completing it correctly, it seems no longer interested in that, nor does it seek to continue its 32.7% stake in West Qurna 1 either.

The report also indicated that ExxonMobil's unwillingness to continue is not only related to the fact that many major Western oil companies have done the same in recent months, but also specifically that there is no basis for the idea that the United States has the idea of using the Schlumberger contract. In "West Qurna 1" to reassert its influence over the oil fields in Iraq.

In addition to all that, the report drew attention to widespread corruption related to Iraqi hydrocarbons. He also noted that the fact that China has been expanding its influence through the same oil fields since the United States has indicated its desire to reduce its role in the Middle East (and elsewhere such as Afghanistan) in order to avoid fighting "endless wars" in the region.

The report explained; While China was moving to achieve this, it was dealing at the time with the volatile Trump, and was in the midst of a trade war with Washington, and that is why it sought to avoid the huge deals that top the headlines when it comes to “exploration and development contracts” for huge oil fields Instead, it scooped several contracts as contract-only awards for obscure Chinese engineering and service firms that no one had ever heard of.

He added that among those deals, "West Qurna 1" itself, as China already controls the site, not only through a share to the 32.7% that "PetroChina" owns.

affiliated with the China National Petroleum Corporation, but also through the gradual control of a series of huge "contractual awards" granted to Chinese companies.

He added that the last of these contracts is an engineering contract worth 121 million US dollars to develop facilities used to extract gas during the production of crude oil for the "China Petroleum" company, which made China the main player in "West Qurna 1", which also led to the "isolation" of the company. ExxonMobil announced the development of the field, and most importantly, it was unable to move forward with the vital "joint sea water supply project", as it allowed China to put forward other demands from Iraq.

With ExxonMobil's withdrawal from the sea water supply project, China National Petroleum Corporation became the only remaining player link

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Tishwash: Al-Sadr continues his consultations in Baghdad and meets Al-Abadi

The leader of the victory coalition, Haider al-Abadi, on Friday received the leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, in the capital, Baghdad.

A brief statement by al-Abadi's office, a copy of which was received by Mawazine News, stated that the latter "received today, in his office, the leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr."

The leader of the Sadrist movement arrived yesterday evening in the capital, Baghdad, and met the leaders of the alliance of Muhammad al-Halbousi's progress, and the forces of the national state, Ammar al-Hakim. link

Mot: --- Yet More Notes to Meself!! ~~~