Cursor International executes projects and collaboration activities across several industries.
By John Lee.
Private investors from Iraq and Turkey have reportedly held preliminary negotiations with Iran to expand and modernize its fuel stations.
According to a report from Petrol Plaza, there are 3,600 fuel stations and 2,400 compressed natural gas (CNG) stations in Iran which need renovation and investment.
To date, more than 250 state-controlled fuel stations have been privatized in the country.
(Source: Petrol Plaza)
(Picture credit: Asadi S)
The Federal Foreign Office of Germany has generously donated EUR 30 million (USD 34.8 million) to the Iraq Humanitarian Fund (IHF), a pooled fund led by the Humanitarian Coordinator and managed by OCHA.
“We are deeply grateful to the German Government and the German people for this very generous contribution,” said the Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, Ms. Lise Grande (pictured).
The German Government has already channelled USD 10.9 million to the IHF, bringing Germany’s total contribution for the year to the pooled fund to USD 45.7 million.
“The pooled fund is the backbone of the humanitarian operation in Iraq,” said Ms. Grande. “More than 125 projects targeting 4.2 million Iraqis in nine governorates have received funding through the IHF in 2017 alone.”
“The military campaign against ISIL is over, but the humanitarian crisis is not,” said Ms. Grande.
“More than 3.3 million Iraqis are displaced–hundreds of thousands are living in camps and improvised shelters. They need help.”
The IHF has provided more than USD 70 million to front-line partners in support the Mosul humanitarian operation. In October 2017, USD 14 million was allocated for the Hawiga operation. “Millions of Iraqis have suffered terribly,” said Ms. Grande.
“Our top priority now is to help ensure that people who need help receive it. In the months ahead we will be working closely with the Government so that people are able to return to their homes safely, voluntarily and in dignity.’
(Source: OCHA)
By John Lee.
The state-owned Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) has said that it has recouped its $2.49 billion investment in the Zubair oil field in southern Iraq.
According to a report from Yonhap, the company has recovered $2.53 million as of December, which exceeds its initial outlay.
The oilfield is currently producing around 360,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
The project primarily involves the drilling of more than 200 wells, the construction of treatment and storage facilities and refurbishment of the existing facilities.
(Source: Yonhap)
By John Lee.
Oil Minister Jabar Ali al-Luaibi [Allibi, Luiebi] has hosted a meeting in Baghdad with the French Minister of State for Foreign Trade, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, confirming the significance of the economic and financial relations between the two countries.
Both sides expressed hopes for major cooperation in all sectors, including oil, industrial, agricultural, commercial, transportation, and housing.
Mr. Lemoyne said that he saw a keenness from the Iraqi side to encourage and invite the French companies to invest in Iraq.
(Source: Office of the Iraqi Prime Minister)
DNO ASA, the Norwegian oil and gas operator, today announced a tripling of production from the Peshkabir field in the Tawke license in the Kurdistan region of Iraq to 15,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) following completion of the Peshkabir-3 well testing, stimulation and cleanup program.
A total of 11 zones in a 1.2 kilometer horizontal section of Cretaceous and Jurassic reservoir in the Peshkabir-3 well were individually tested and flowed successfully, of which ten were oil zones and one a gas zone.
The oil zones tested an average of 5,340 bopd per zone on a 64/64″ choke, with the highest individual test rate of 7,200 bopd. A multi-zone combined production test totaled 12,500 bopd on a 128/64″ choke from five zones.
Production from the previously drilled Peshkabir-2 well, in operation since May, together with that of the new Peshkabir-3 well are currently processed through temporary test package facilities and trucked to DNO’s adjacent Tawke field facilities for export.
As previously announced, the Tawke license partners are proceeding with fast track plans to commission an early production facility by yearend and complete installation of pipeline connections early in 2018 to allow ramp up of output at the Peshkabir field.
Preparations are underway to drill the Peshkabir-4 well which will also be designed to test the underlying Triassic reservoir.
DNO operates and has a 75 percent interest in the Tawke license, with partner Genel Energy plc holding the remainder. The license contains the Tawke and Peshkabir fields whose combined year-to-date production has averaged 110,000 bopd.
(Source: DNO)
Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar Ali al-Luaibi [Allibi, Luiebi] said on Sunday that a deal signed with Tehran to swap up to 60,000 barrels per day of crude produced from the northern Iraqi Kirkuk oilfield for Iranian oil is for one year.
“This is an agreement for one year and then we will see after that whether to renew it,” Luaibi told reporters in Kuwait City on the sidelines of an Arab oil ministerial meeting, Reuters reported.
The agreement signed on Friday by the two OPEC countries provides for Iran to deliver to Iraq’s southern ports “oil of the same characteristics and in the same quantities” as those it would receive from Kirkuk.
The deal in effect allows Iraq to resume sales of Kirkuk crude, which have been halted since Iraqi forces took back control of the fields from the Kurds in October.
Between 30,000 and 60,000 bpd of Kirkuk crude will be delivered by tanker trucks to the border area of Kermanshah, where Iran has a refinery.
The two countries are planning to build a pipeline to carry the oil from Kirkuk, so as to avoid trucking the crude.
The pipeline could replace the existing export route from Kirkuk via Turkey and the Mediterranean by pipeline.
(Sources: Tasnim, under Creative Commons licence; Iraqi Ministry of Oil)
The UN Security Council announced on Friday that all the measures imposed in its resolutions 1958 (2010) and 2335 (2016) pursuant to Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations in relation to the Iraq oil-for-food programme had been fully implemented.
Unanimously adopting resolution 2390 (2017), the Council welcomed the fact that the remaining funds in the escrow accounts established pursuant to resolution 1958 (2010) had been transferred to the Government of Iraq pursuant to resolution 2335 (2016).
The Council acknowledged the Secretary-General’s final report on the matter (document S/2017/820), which stated, among other things, that the remaining $14,283,565 in the administrative escrow account had been transferred to Iraq.
Following the adoption, Amy Noel Tachco (United States) applauded Iraq’s complete implementation of measures under the oil-for-food programme, although the country still faced many challenges. She looked forward to close cooperation internationally and bilaterally in support of Iraq as a federal, democratic and prosperous country.
Resolution
The full text of resolution 2390 (2017) reads as follows:
“The Security Council,
“Recalling its resolutions 1958 (2010) and 2335 (2016),
“Acknowledging receipt of the final report of the Secretary-General pursuant to paragraph 4 of Security Council resolution 2335 (2016), S/2017/820,
“1. Welcomes the implementing arrangements entered into by the Secretary-General and the Government of Iraq as requested in paragraph 7 of Security Council resolution 1958 (2010);
“2. Also welcomes that the remaining funds in the escrow accounts established pursuant to paragraphs 3–5 of Security Council resolution 1958 (2010) have been transferred to the Government of Iraq pursuant to Security Council resolution 2335 (2016);
“3. Concludes that all the measures imposed by the Security Council in resolutions 1958 (2010) and 2335 (2016) pursuant to Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations have been fully implemented by the parties.”
(Source: UN)
This article was originally published by Niqash. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.
Child labour is illegal in Iraq. But if there is death or disease in the family, minors are often forced to work. The authorities responsible for policing labour laws take a range of different attitudes to that.
Just a few days after the beginning of the new school term in Baghdad and Mohammed Ali dropped out. He is 12. His father was killed in a bombing in the city a few months ago and now as the eldest of three sons he feels adult responsibility weighing heavily upon him.
“I just had to search for a job, any job, in order to bring food to my brothers and to my mother who is taking care of them,” says Ali, who NIQASH met on the street. “I will never let her go out to search for a job as long as I am there for her.”
Ali is sweating and he wears ragged clothing. He works as a porter and carries building materials, rocks and other heavy items around the city. He leaves home at sunrise and returns at sunset, eats just one meal a day that costs him about IQD1,000 (US$0.83) and gives the rest of his daily wages, IQD15,000 (around US$12) to his mother for housekeeping. He makes sure that his younger brothers are doing all right and he sleeps next to them in the same bed before getting up the next day to go out and do the same all over again.
Ali is just one of many underage labourers in Iraq. The number of child workers has increased significantly since 2003. Last year the United Nations children’s’ agency, UNICEF, said that more than half a million Iraqi children are thought to be working rather than at school. A lot of those cases are due to violence or displacement, as in Ali’s situation. Iraq’s own Ministry of Planning has higher numbers, saying that about one in five children, aged mostly between five and 14, work to support their families and themselves.
By John Lee.
The Iraqi Ministry of Oil has denied reports that Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak discussed Russian oil companies’ operations in Iraqi Kurdistan with the Iraqi prime minister or oil minister during his trip to Iraq.
Novak had been quoted as saying that Baghdad had no problems with Russian companies doing business with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
Baghdad reasserted that while it welcomes foreign investment in the country, “oil is a sovereign resource and therefore all contracts … must be signed with the federal government and the Ministry of Oil.”
(Sources: Reuters, Rudaw)
By John Lee.
Saudi Arabian companies have signed 18 agreements with the Iraqi government to jointly develop several key projects in the energy sector.
The statement from the Iraqi Oil Ministry gave little detail, but quotes the Saudi Minister of Energy Khalid Al-Falih as saying that Saudi companies are keen to develop relations with Iraq, adding that several important Saudi companies will open their branches in Iraq to “achieve more bilateral cooperation and expand the size of investments in the sectors of oil, gas, industry, importing, infrastructure and [other sectors].”
According to Reuters, both petrochemical giant Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) and Saudi Arabia’s Industrialization & Energy Services Co (TAQA) are planning to open offices in Iraq.
(Sources: Iraqi Oil Ministry, Reuters)