Iraq awards oil project to Australian firm

Iraq awards oil project to Australian firm
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From: AFP
October 05, 2011 8:05AM

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Iraq has awarded a $US518 million ($545.35 million) contract to expand oil export facilities in the south of the country to a subsidiary of Australian firm Leighton International, the Government said yesterday.
The project must be implemented within 16 months and will be funded by a Japanese government loan, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement.

The total value of the contract is $US518,157,000 ($545.51 million) and was awarded to Leighton's Singapore-registered subsidiary, Leighton Offshore.

The project is to build a single point mooring loading buoy and a sea export pipeline "in order to increase the export capacities for the oil ports in the south to handle the increased crude oil production that will come after the oil auctions," Mr Dabbagh said.

He was referring to a series of public auctions held between mid-2009 and late 2010 by the Iraqi Government in which several contracts were awarded to foreign firms to ramp up production at oil and gas fields nationwide.

Having awarded those contracts, Baghdad is also seeking to improve its export infrastructure.

Yesterday's announcement follows the September 14 awarding of a $US468.5-million contract to expand oil export facilities in the southern port city of Basra to Italian firm Saipem.

Around 80 per cent of Iraq's oil exports are transported through its southern ports, with crude sales accounting for the lion's share of government revenues.

Iraq on Monday said that crude output was now 2.9 million barrels per day (bpd), and will rise to three million bpd by the end of the year.

It says it will be able to produce around 12 million bpd by 2017, although the International Monetary Fund has said these projections are too high.



Read more: http://www.news.com.au/business/iraq-awards-oil-project-to-australian-firm/story-e6frfm1i-1226158751835#ixzz1ZsKfbp9a

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Iraq: The Coming Oil Boom
Posted on 08 October 2011. Tags: FDI, Foreign Direct Investment

Articles from the October/November issue of fDi Magazine, available free of charge to registered users:
Iraq begins building towards long-term prosperity
Security issues, corruption problems, processes bound up in bundles of red tape… The problems facing companies wanting to do business in Iraq are myriad, but the country’s promise – as one of the world’s leading oil and gas producers – makes such short-term hurdles a price worth paying.
Turning Iraq’s ‘oil curse’ into a blessing
Iraq’s abundance of oil has been blamed for much of its instability over the past few decades. However, its new government is vowing to use the country’s oil reserves to bring greater unity to the Middle East.
Abdul Karim al-Luaibi: showing the world Iraq’s potential
Iraq has made solid progress in developing its oil capabilities and has ambitious plans to increase production further, according to its minister of oil, Abdul Karim al-Luaibi.
Building a future: Iraq’s race for oil refineries
Iraq’s dated oil infrastructure desperately needs updating and expanding so it can meet increasing demands. The government has ambitious plans, but can it engage the international oil companies to invest in them?
Iraq braces itself for US security withdrawal
Insurgent attacks have been falling in Iraq over the past few years, but as US and allied troops prepare to exit the country later this year, security issues are again ====================



Iraq to Construct Two New Refineries to Meet Domestic Need

http://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Iraq-to-Construct-Two-New-Refineries-to-Meet-Domestic-Need.html


Written by Charles Kennedy
Saturday, 08 October 2011 13:53

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Iraqi Oil Ministry, anxious to reduce the country's dependence on imported foreign oil refined products, intends to build two new refineries in the provinces of Karbala and Missan. The Karbala refinery will refine up to 140.000 barrels per day and the one in Missan up to 150,000 bpd.

On 3 October Iraq’s Oil Ministry reported that the country remains unable to produce enough oil and gas to meet indigenous demands. While Iraq produces 8 million liters of liquid gas per day, it consumes approximately 12 million liters. As regards oil, while Iraq produces 12 million liters of refined oil every day, another 12 million liters have to be imported from international markets to meet domestic demand.

Furthermore, while Iraq’s Oil Ministry has repeatedly announced plans to quintuple the country's oil production from 2009’s level of 2.5 million bpd to 12 million bpd within the next five years, there would still not be enough refineries to process the crude oil into usable fuel, AK News-Kurdistan News Agengy-Iraqi Independent News reported.

Before the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion to topple the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Iraq's daily oil production was 2.6 million bpd.

By. Charles Kennedy, Deputy Editor OilPrice.com

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February 15, 2012, 9:08 a.m. ET

Iraq Says Too Early To Take Action Against Leighton - Official

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By Hassan Hafidh
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES


AMMAN (Dow Jones)--A senior Iraqi oil official said Wednesday it is still too early to take any action against a subsidiary of Leighton Holdings Ltd. (LEI.AU) following a corruption investigation by Australian police into an alleged illegal payment.

Abdul Mahdy al-Ameedi, head of the Iraqi Oil Ministry's petroleum contracts and licensing directorate, also said the Iraqi government hasn't taken so far any measure against Leighton Holdings' subsidiary Leighton Offshore Pte Ltd. which signed a number of contracts with the Iraqi ministry to expand the crude-oil export facilities near Basra.

Leighton Holdings Ltd. Monday said Australian police launched an investigation after the construction company notified authorities of a possible illegal payment by one of its subsidiaries linked to work expanding Iraq's crude-oil export facilities. Leighton said it wasn't yet known if there had been any wrongful conduct or whether the company would suffer adverse financial consequences as a result.

"These are only allegations …We need to wait for the results of the investigation first," Ameedi, told Dow Jones Newswires in an exclusive interview.

"They could be false allegations … We have only heard it from the media and we haven't received anything official," he added.

The possible breach of the company's code of ethics and Australian laws relates to payments that may have been made by Leighton Offshore Pte. Ltd. in connection with work in Iraq, it said in a statement to the Australian securities exchange. Leighton Chairman Stephen Johns said the company volunteered the information to police after becoming aware of a possible breach.

In October 2010, Leighton Offshore said it had received a contract worth US$733 million to install three moorings and 120 kilometers of pipeline in the Persian Gulf for Iraq's South Oil Co., part of work to redevelop export facilities from the Fao Terminal near Al Basra.

A year later, the company said the subsidiary had received a US$79 million contract from South Oil for an additional mooring, plus a US$518 million contract from the Iraqi company for further work, including two offshore platforms and a 75-kilometer pipeline being financed through a development assistance loan with Japan International Cooperation Agency.

Iraq opened on Sunday the first Single-point Mooring, or SPM, sea terminal able to handle some 900,000 barrels a day built by Leighton.

News of the suspect payment came as Leighton said it expected a profit of between 600 million Australian dollars and A$650 million (US$642 million and US$695 million), excluding one-time items, for the financial year to June 30, and a similar range for the year through December. The company is moving to a calendar year for its results to bring them into line with majority owner Hochtief AG (HOT.XE) and its parent Actividades de Construccion y Servicios SA. (ACS.MC).

-By Hassan Hafidh, Dow Jones Newswires; +962 799 831 831; hassan.hafidh@dowjones.com

(Robb M. Stewart in Melbourne contributed to this report)

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Output stumbles early in record year-to-be
Employees of the state-run South Oil Company (SOC) work on a damaged pipeline, a day after bomb attacks occurred, in Rumaila oilfield in Basra province, December 14, 2011. (ATEF HASSAN/Reuters)
Employees of the state-run South Oil Company (SOC) work on a damaged pipeline, a day after bomb attacks occurred, in Rumaila oilfield in Basra province, December 14, 2011. (ATEF HASSAN/Reuters)
By Ben Lando of Iraq Oil Report
Published March 1, 2012

Iraq is on pace for another weak month for exports, officials say, and oil fields are being forced to curtail production. The problem stems from persistent infrastructure bottlenecks: a new export facility remains delayed and weather conditions have stymied tanker loading.

The Iraqi Oil Ministry's Inspector General is also intently watching an investigation by Australian authorities into the country's largest construction firm, which is accused of paying for bidding information in its success... ========= Leighton snares $200m Iraq contract for oil, gas by: LISA MACNAMARA From: The Australian September 29, 2012 12:00AM LEIGHTON Holdings has secured its first oil and gas contract in Iraq since a corruption scandal emerged earlier this year. Its Middle East joint venture Habtoor Leighton Group won the subcontract, worth more than $200 million, for engineering and construction work on a production facility in southern Iraq. ========

Iranian Police Forcibly Disperse Women's Rights Protest In Tehran

6/14/06

By Golnaz Esfandiari

PRAGUE, June 13, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Iranian police violently dispersed a women's rights gathering in one of Tehran's main squares on June 12.

Activists said afterward that police forces detained more than 50 people shortly after the gathering started. One former reformist legislator, several students, and women's rights activists are reportedly among the detainees. Several activists were arrested and summoned to court ahead of the announced gathering.



Police beating women deomonstrators
photo by Arash Ashoorinia, Kosoof.com


Activists say several hundred demonstrators of both genders attended the peaceful gathering, which was held to protest legal obstacles for women.

They were planning to remain in front of a nearby park for one hour and voice their objections to discriminatory laws.

According to the interpretation of Islamic laws applied in Iran, a woman's testimony in court is worth half of a man's. Women's divorce rights are negligible compared with those for men. And women need the permission of their father or husband to travel.

Activists planned to call for equal legal rights in marriage, divorce, child custody, inheritance, and other areas.

They also said that they would read aloud a statement claiming that despite efforts to achieve equal status, women's most basic rights "have been ignored in the Iranian civil and penal codes."

Authorities Were Prepared

But shortly after the gathering started, participants faced tough action by police forces, who dispersed the gathering within about an hour.

Keyvan Rafi, the spokesman of a newly founded group that calls itself Human Rights Activists In Iran, told RFE/RL that police and security forces outnumbered protesters.

He said they resorted to force to crush the protest.

"[Police] forces -- especially armed female officers with batons -- suppressed the protest," Rafi said. "Between 70 and 80 people were arrested -- former MP Mussavi Khoinia, women's rights activist from Amir Kabir University Leila Mohseninejad, and also members of Daftare Tahkim Vahdat [major reformist student organizations] are among those arrested -- in addition to many women whose name we have not been able to obtain yet."

Despite the clashes, some protesters managed to chant slogans urging that laws against women be abolished.

Some bloggers claiming to have witnessed the scene accused authorities of dragging women on the ground by their hair and savagely beating others. They say pepper gas was used against the activists.


Police confronting women deomonstrators
photo by Arash Ashoorinia, Kosoof.com


Pattern Of Repression

The June 12 protest came exactly one year after more than 1,000 women's rights activists staged a protest in front on Tehran University. They called for legislative change to guarantee equal rights for women. That demonstration was also forcefully dispersed by police.

But activists have vowed to continue their peaceful protests until their demands are met.

Three months ago, on March 8, they held another gathering in Tehran to commemorate UN-sponsored International Women's Day. That assembly was also broke up by security forces, who detained several people.

Activist Fariba Davoudi Mohajer -- who was among those summoned to court ahead of the June 12 gathering -- told Radio Farda on June 8 that activists are ready to pay a price for their efforts.

"Women have a common discourse that is based on demands for equality," Mohajer said. "We have reached the conclusion that we have to work together, and this is a very positive development in the history of Iran's women's movement. This is a continuous movement with [solid] roots. The community of Iranian women has also accepted the costs [women] must pay for their actions. They have accepted that a social movement has its price, and they have to pay for it."



photo by Arash Ashoorinia, Kosoof.com (more photos)


Nobel Appeal

Last week, during a meeting in Vienna, outspoken Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi said that Iranian women should not tolerate legal discrimination.

"The discriminatory laws are applied in a country whose women are better educated than its men," Ebadi said. "More than 65 percent of our university students are girls. Naturally, a society where its women are so cultivated and so well-educated cannot tolerate evident gender discrimination in the laws."

On Ebadi's initiative, four fellow female Nobel Peace Prize laureates expressed public support for the June 12 gathering in Tehran.

Guatemala's Rigoberta Menchu, America's Jody Williams, Kenya's Wangari Maathai, and Northern Ireland's Betty Williams joined Ebadi in saying they support Iranian women in their continued struggle for equal rights.

Ahead of the ill-fated demonstration, Amnesty International also called on the Iranian government to end discrimination against women. The London-based rights watchdog said Iranian officials should take prompt action to address laws that continue to deny women basic rights.




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Copyright (c) 2006 RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org


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