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South Kurdistan oil & gas development
Topic Started: Nov 17 12, 1:25 (649,142 Views)
Alasha
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Who is going to manage the future oil and gas industry in Kurdistan?

Posted Image

The challenge: How to develop Kurds for senior positions

Take a look at the global oil and gas business and you will see that senior managers and executives are often petroleum engineers or geoscientists. This industry is highly technical. Both exploration and production companies as well as service companies require creative technical management to be successful.

At the senior management level in the 25 international oil companies (IOCs) operating in Kurdistan, you will find that only 10% are Kurds. However, this is totally understandable given that most senior managers have at least 25 years experience and the oil and gas industry in Kurdistan is realistically only ten years old. Certainly there were Kurds working in the Iraqi oil and gas industry previously, but an insufficient number to make a big impact on this rapidly expanding business in Kurdistan. There is currently only one operating company (out of 25) that is Kurdish owned, but there are a growing number of Kurdish service companies.

So, we would assume that IOCs are actively recruiting local graduates to train and develop to become the next generation of managers of their business in Kurdistan. Unfortunately that is only partly true.

The following diagram illustrates the status of local and expatriate employment in the IOCs in the Region. In the lower skilled roles (including recent graduates), the Kurdish representation is high, and conversely at senior levels most roles are filled by expatriates. The challenge facing the Region is to develop the senior staff to take over the reins of the business. But it will take time.

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The IOCs directly employ some 600 or more local graduates (out of around 1,500 professional staff) in Kurdistan, of whom most have less than five years experience. And of those graduates, only half are petroleum engineers and geologists. The talent pool for future managers is growing but is not yet significant enough. IOCs still very much rely on senior expatriate staff and often respond to the challenge of developing senior Kurdish staff by saying that they cannot find the quality of graduates they need.

Compelling need for more industry-university dialogue

Leaving aside other possible reasons for the apparently slow response to the future needs of the Region, some companies are beginning to realise that in order for them to recruit, train and develop the young engineering and geoscience graduates they need for the future, they will have to help improve the quality of education that the graduates receive from the universities in Kurdistan.

Consequently, certain IOCs and a few oilfield service companies (OSCs) have started to reach out to the universities. About half of the IOCs are already participating in liaison and advisory boards with, so far, the universities of Duhok, Koya and Kurdistan-Hawler. These boards bring seasoned industry staff face to face with university faculty members to discuss how each can help the other. The goal is simple: the industry wants better graduates and the universities want to produce graduates that the industry will want to hire.

Initial steps agreed in these boards include having industry experts give lectures to students, arranging for students to visit oil installations, and providing technical problems, data and software for student projects.

Koya University’s Petroleum Engineering program has perhaps the foremost oil and gas- related graduate output in Kurdistan, and has recently doubled its intake to 80 students. Fuad Khoshnaw, Dean of Engineering at Koya, exhibits both frustration and determination to make the engagement between industry and universities really effective. As he puts it, “One of the main causes of unemployment among university graduates is the poor linkage between the targets of the higher education system and the needs of the labour market. Education priorities need to be recast. Higher education needs a strategy based on meeting both the market and community needs”.

He also advocates more open government support for industry-university initiatives, in order to give the latitude to the relevant university departments to deal with the industry's requirements.

So clearly there is a lot of work yet to do to build these relationships to the level that exists in European and North American universities where connections between industry and universities are very strong. But Rome wasn’t built in a day.

One program that is gathering momentum is the hiring of summer students and interns by the IOCs and OSCs over the summer break from university. There were over 300 student placements in 2014. This mainly gives students excellent experience, exposing them to how the industry works, what its like to live and work in a camp, understanding working with foreigners, etc. The oil industry is a lucrative but challenging business to work in, but it isn’t for everyone and this short exposure also helps students decide if it is what they want to do.

The number of graduates in 2014 with oil and gas related degrees (geoscience and petroleum engineering) was 124 and this is intended (by the universities) to rise to 363 in five years. If other engineering disciplines are included, these figures roughly double. This number of graduates would nominally satisfy the industry needs, but if the industry is not satisfied with the quality of graduates today it certainly has doubts about whether the universities can expand their intake so fast, and improve programs at the same time.

So the need for more dialogue between universities and industry is compelling. Those companies and universities who have taken the initiative to engage with each other need to be encouraged and the other IOCs, OSCs and universities need to follow their example.

Ian McIntosh heads KOGWorks, a project sponsored by the Minister of Natural Resources, to increase the recruitment, training and development of Kurds in the oil and gas sector.

Source: http://rudaw.net/english/analysis/03032015
Jet fuel can't melt steel beams

"If Turkey allows itself interfere in the matter of Kerkûk because of a few thousand Turkmen, we will do the same with regard to Diyarbakir (Amed) and other Kurdistani cities in Turkey because of 30 million Kurds." - President Masoud Barzanî
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Worldwar2boy
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kurdishpatriot
Mar 1 15, 9:03
I have heard that iran was doing secret discoveries in Eastern kurdistan. Also Bakur could also have a lot of oil, but turks are having it secret till 2023.
Why would they hold it secret until 2023?

I highly doubt Bakur has oil.

The Kirkuk oil field Baba Gur Gur was found by a Turkish company I believe.

If it had something to do with some kind of treatment, it still wouldn't make sense since the Kurdish revolutionary parties were not as big as today 100 years ago.

biji kurd u kurdistan !!
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kurdishpatriot
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secular sheikh

Worldwar2boy
Mar 4 15, 1:46
kurdishpatriot
Mar 1 15, 9:03
I have heard that iran was doing secret discoveries in Eastern kurdistan. Also Bakur could also have a lot of oil, but turks are having it secret till 2023.
Why would they hold it secret until 2023?

I highly doubt Bakur has oil.

The Kirkuk oil field Baba Gur Gur was found by a Turkish company I believe.

If it had something to do with some kind of treatment, it still wouldn't make sense since the Kurdish revolutionary parties were not as big as today 100 years ago.

Bcus in 1923 an agreement between turkey and the west was that turkey was not allowed to drill for oil, and of course other things. The agreement lasts 100 years so they be able to drill the oil, they probably already done some explorations.
#PROMOTEWOMENRIGHTS
"shengal bo ezdi ya", Ezidi namerin, HATA ARAB NAMAYEN NEK SHENGAL!
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deso2409
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the greater Kurdistan have 7,5% of the oil in the world, which makes us the 8th oil-rich country in the world.
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Worldwar2boy
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deso2409
Mar 4 15, 7:34
the greater Kurdistan have 7,5% of the oil in the world, which makes us the 8th oil-rich country in the world.
You made a calculation mistake. You forgot to subtract the Kurdish oil from the Iraqi oil ;).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_proven_oil_reserves

Iraq is currently 5th with 140 billion barrels. But 70 billion of that is in Kurdistan.

Syrian Kurdistan has another 7-10 billion barrels. That's 80 billion barrels of PROVEN oil reserve.

South/South Kurdistan has potential for up to 110 billion barrels + Rojava's 10 = 120 billion barrels.

North-Kurdistan (Turkish Kurdistan) has not much oil, if anything (reserves for ENTIRE Turkey are only 0.1 billion barrels).

No information about oil in East (Iranian) Kurdistan.

So 120 billion barrels would put Kurdistan on the 5th place in the world.
If East (Iranian) Kurdistan has 30+ billion barrels or more, Kurdistan would be the 4th :).

biji kurd u kurdistan !!
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ALAN
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For Sorani readers

https://docs.google.com/viewerng/viewer?url=http://basnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/feb-report.pdf&hl=en_US
Russian Girenak Joseph, who visited Kirkuk in Kurdistan as a part of his tour throu the 1870 - 1873 AD, who published the results of his trip & his studies later in 1879, in the 4th volume in the Bulletin of the Caucasus department of the Royal Geographical Russian Society estimated Kirkuk's population as many as 12-50,000 people, & he emphasized that except 40 Christian families, the rest of the population were Kurds. As for The Turkmen & Arabs, they have not been already existed at the time.
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ALAN
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Kurdistan and Iran signed oil and gas agreement.

KURDISTAN will allow iran use its land to export gas to the med sea while KURDISTAN uses iran to export oil via the gulf sea... Pipelines will be built for both.

That is more like it.
Russian Girenak Joseph, who visited Kirkuk in Kurdistan as a part of his tour throu the 1870 - 1873 AD, who published the results of his trip & his studies later in 1879, in the 4th volume in the Bulletin of the Caucasus department of the Royal Geographical Russian Society estimated Kirkuk's population as many as 12-50,000 people, & he emphasized that except 40 Christian families, the rest of the population were Kurds. As for The Turkmen & Arabs, they have not been already existed at the time.
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Alasha
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Great news kak Alan. We have to play our cards the right way and balancing between our 4 enemys time to time.
Jet fuel can't melt steel beams

"If Turkey allows itself interfere in the matter of Kerkûk because of a few thousand Turkmen, we will do the same with regard to Diyarbakir (Amed) and other Kurdistani cities in Turkey because of 30 million Kurds." - President Masoud Barzanî
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Alasha
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Oil Search concludes record-breaking survey in Kurdistan



SUGAR LAND, Texas -- Oil Search Limited and Wireless Seismic announced Tuesday that in December, following seven months of continuous operations, Asian Oilfield Services (ASIAN) completed a large 3D seismic survey over the Taza Block in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq using Wireless Seismic’s real-time, radio-based RT System 2 seismic data acquisition system.

The acquisition project sets a new world record for the number of seismic channels transmitted cable-free in real time by deploying over 13,000 channels with an active recording patch of 6,400 channels.

Oil Search, operator of the Taza PSC and contractor to the Ministry of Natural Resources, contracted ASIAN to conduct the 636 km2 survey over the extremely rugged terrain of the Taza Block that included very rough access for the line crews and the vibrator fleet, extreme heat, pre-existing minefields, and the explosive remnants of war.

“We are very impressed with the reduced HSE exposure and other benefits that eliminating cables have delivered without compromising the data quality,” stated Nigel Wilson, General Manager of Exploration, Oil Search. “I am pleased to be able to report that we completed the survey safely.”

“The scalability of the RT System 2 became truly apparent as the crew deployed 13,000 channels across a large area of hilly terrain,” continued Wilson. “Another major benefit from the elimination of cables was the reduced interference by farmers as they recommenced work in their fields in October, after the onset of the first rains.”

“The real-time QC and noise monitoring was especially useful, allowing us to continuously monitor the status of the spread despite significant noise bursts from cultural and other activities inside and outside the survey area from time to time,” explained Wilson.

“We are delighted that the RT System 2 has been used to conduct another large 3D survey in the rough terrain of the Kurdistan region,” said Mick Lambert, President & CEO of Wireless Seismic. “This project has proven, beyond doubt, that the system is capable of tackling the most challenging large-scale projects while delivering significant HSE benefits compared to other systems.”


Source: http://www.worldoil.com/news/2015/3/10/oil-search-concludes-record-breaking-survey-in-kurdistan
Jet fuel can't melt steel beams

"If Turkey allows itself interfere in the matter of Kerkûk because of a few thousand Turkmen, we will do the same with regard to Diyarbakir (Amed) and other Kurdistani cities in Turkey because of 30 million Kurds." - President Masoud Barzanî
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Rizgaar
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ALAN
Mar 11 15, 11:58
Kurdistan and Iran signed oil and gas agreement.

KURDISTAN will allow iran use its land to export gas to the med sea while KURDISTAN uses iran to export oil via the gulf sea... Pipelines will be built for both.

That is more like it.
Why would Iran need to use our land to export gas to the med? They have large borders with Turkey.
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deso2409
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Rizgaar
Mar 12 15, 11:07
ALAN
Mar 11 15, 11:58
Kurdistan and Iran signed oil and gas agreement.

KURDISTAN will allow iran use its land to export gas to the med sea while KURDISTAN uses iran to export oil via the gulf sea... Pipelines will be built for both.

That is more like it.
Why would Iran need to use our land to export gas to the med? They have large borders with Turkey.
They don't get along i guess. Turkey is sunni and Iran is shiite, same shizz but different a**hole :P
Edited by deso2409, Mar 12 15, 9:59.
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Rizgaar
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deso2409
Mar 12 15, 9:59
Rizgaar
Mar 12 15, 11:07

Quoting limited to 2 levels deep
They don't get along i guess. Turkey is sunni and Iran is shiite, same shizz but different a**hole :P
But how can we export Iranian gas to the med without Turkey? Their (Iran) gas pipeline would have to go through Turkey to reach the med.

And they do have a diplomatic relationship. They have no problem trading goods with each other.
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ALAN
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^^ no via KRG to Rojava bypassing Turkey
Russian Girenak Joseph, who visited Kirkuk in Kurdistan as a part of his tour throu the 1870 - 1873 AD, who published the results of his trip & his studies later in 1879, in the 4th volume in the Bulletin of the Caucasus department of the Royal Geographical Russian Society estimated Kirkuk's population as many as 12-50,000 people, & he emphasized that except 40 Christian families, the rest of the population were Kurds. As for The Turkmen & Arabs, they have not been already existed at the time.
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ALAN
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riGxeNR2ock
Russian Girenak Joseph, who visited Kirkuk in Kurdistan as a part of his tour throu the 1870 - 1873 AD, who published the results of his trip & his studies later in 1879, in the 4th volume in the Bulletin of the Caucasus department of the Royal Geographical Russian Society estimated Kirkuk's population as many as 12-50,000 people, & he emphasized that except 40 Christian families, the rest of the population were Kurds. As for The Turkmen & Arabs, they have not been already existed at the time.
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Rizgaar
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ALAN
Mar 15 15, 2:32
^^ no via KRG to Rojava bypassing Turkey
That's a horrible idea. Because Rojava isn't connected. Such a pipeline must go through Daash controlled areas + FSA areas + contested areas to reach Assad's areas and from there to the med. it would be a complete clusterfuck.
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ALAN
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No it's not horrible it goes thru Rojava then before the med sea it will be Assad area. But we have the longest route on our lands.
Russian Girenak Joseph, who visited Kirkuk in Kurdistan as a part of his tour throu the 1870 - 1873 AD, who published the results of his trip & his studies later in 1879, in the 4th volume in the Bulletin of the Caucasus department of the Royal Geographical Russian Society estimated Kirkuk's population as many as 12-50,000 people, & he emphasized that except 40 Christian families, the rest of the population were Kurds. As for The Turkmen & Arabs, they have not been already existed at the time.
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ALAN
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Oil minister: KRG economy can be self-sufficient in months

By RÛDAW 3 hours ago

Hewlêr, Kurdistan Region – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is expected to reach financial self-sufficiency from Baghdad in the coming months, Ashti Hawrami, KRG energy minister, has told Rudaw.

On the sidelines of the Third Annual Forum of the American University, Sulaimani, Hawrami outlined plans to increase their oil production to 750,000 barrels per day by the end of 2015. He said economic independence could be achieved despite Baghdad withholding the region’s 17 percent share of budget due to the drop in oil prices and skyrocketing security costs.

Hawrami, minister of oil and natural resources since 2006, said Baghdad cut off the KRG from its share of the budget in 2014, a move he claimed was punishment for the KRG’s independent oil exports. Still, he said the economic plan would fill the gap.

Hawrami had previously claimed KRG will produce one million barrels of oil per day by the end of 2015. He qualified that number in the interview, explaining the ongoing war with Daash has delayed the export volume for at least five or six months.

Hewlêr and Baghdad finalized an agreement in December that said the KRG would contribute 550,000 barrels of oil per day to the federal budget.

In a separate statement this week, the KRG said it has honored 97 percent of its commitments under the oil agreement with Baghdad, but said the central government has lived up to only 20 percent of its financial obligations.

http://rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/160320151
Russian Girenak Joseph, who visited Kirkuk in Kurdistan as a part of his tour throu the 1870 - 1873 AD, who published the results of his trip & his studies later in 1879, in the 4th volume in the Bulletin of the Caucasus department of the Royal Geographical Russian Society estimated Kirkuk's population as many as 12-50,000 people, & he emphasized that except 40 Christian families, the rest of the population were Kurds. As for The Turkmen & Arabs, they have not been already existed at the time.
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Looking at the KRG-Iran pipeline from the Iranian perspective you'll soon realize it is more about geopolitical interests rather than economic ones.
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Alendsh
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ALAN
Mar 15 15, 2:32
^^ no via KRG to Rojava bypassing Turkey
Kak Alan I dont think they have chance to bypass Turkey in that case, because in Syria Daash has control from Serekanye until the the Jordanian border. I think the whole idea is to make a shorter pipe by passing their pipe through kurdistan and enter to Turkish border via Zaxo.
Give nine, save ten.
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ALAN
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^^ no Rojava will not remain unconnected and Iran might help Rojava achieve that for its own purposes, Iran doesn't want to go throu Turkey otherwise it will just do that bypassing KRG in the first place since they border one other.
Russian Girenak Joseph, who visited Kirkuk in Kurdistan as a part of his tour throu the 1870 - 1873 AD, who published the results of his trip & his studies later in 1879, in the 4th volume in the Bulletin of the Caucasus department of the Royal Geographical Russian Society estimated Kirkuk's population as many as 12-50,000 people, & he emphasized that except 40 Christian families, the rest of the population were Kurds. As for The Turkmen & Arabs, they have not been already existed at the time.
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ALAN
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Nuts and bolts of Baghdad-Erbil oil dispute: interview with Ashti Hawrami

By RUDAW 16 hours ago

In a detailed interview with Rudaw, Kurdistan’s Minister of Natural Resources Ashti Hawrami explains the hurdles encountered by the Kurdistan Regional Government over an oil deal signed with Baghdad. That agreement was supposed to mend a year of tensions and restart payments from Baghdad for the running of the regional government. Hawrami explains why that has not gone smoothly. “The issue is not technical, it is money and political,” he explains.


Rudaw: What is the basis of your agreement with Baghdad?


Ashti Hawrami: Our agreement with Baghdad was signed in November of last year which was a temporary agreement for 150,000 barrels of oil per day. In return, Baghdad agreed to give $500 million to the Kurdistan Region monthly. That was to continue negotiating for an agreement for 2015. In reality, we expected $1 billion by the second installment, but they only sent half a billion. We gave up on that and continued with the 150,000 barrels. On December 2, 2014 we were in Baghdad talking about the budget. We agreed that we would produce from Kurdistan’s oilfields 250,000 barrels of oil daily for SOMO (State Oil Marketing Organization) in return for the 2015 budget. We also agreed that we would transport for them 300,000 barrels of oil from Kirkuk and hand it over to SOMO at Ceyhan port. That was our agreement, and in return the Kurdistan Region would receive its 17 percent share of the budget. That was our first and principal agreement, which was to go to the Iraqi council of ministers for passing. We then continued with exporting the 150,000 barrels through December while waiting for the agreement to become law. We continued for two or three weeks as a gesture of goodwill until we see the draft of the law. But in the first seven days they started complaining, saying, “You are sending us little (oil). You have to send 250,000 barrels.” We then said that we hadn’t even started yet. We said that we hadn’t said we would export for sure 250,000 barrels a day, and that that would be the case in the annual total sum.


Rudaw: Did you say those very words to them in the meetings?


Ashti Hawrami: Yes, we did. I then went to Baghdad on January 8, 2015 and met with (Iraqi oil minister) Dr. Adil Abdel Mahdi for about 4.5 hours. I was accompanied by Dr. Amanj and Dr. Roj (Nuri Shaways) joined us in Baghdad. There, we talked about the Kurdistan Region’s technical problems and their problems in Kirkuk and how we could meet their 300,000 barrels and our 250,000 barrels. We agreed that we would solve the technical problems together. Some of the issues were their part, some ours and some shared by both sides. For instance, the metering at Ceyhan or Pishkhabur: our part was repairing some pipelines and pumps; theirs were more or less the same. We agreed that it would take three months to take care of those issues, which means we wouldn’t be able to meet the set amount of production during those three months, but after the three months we would increase production in order to balance out the annual production of 250,000 barrels per day as agreed by the KRG.


Rudaw: But if you knew you were going to face those challenges, why did you sign the agreement in the first place?


Ashti Hawrami: The first agreement was only on 250,000 barrels per day that would go into the 2015 budget, and in the beginning of the new year we were still talking the budget. That initial agreement was just on how we would make sure to meet the 250,000-barrel requirement and how they would meet their part of the 300,000 barrels. During that period, the agreement was that the total sum of both sides was 375,000 barrels. We also agreed that at Ceyhan we would sell the oil at the same price. For example, if we had residue oil to sell, they told us not to sell it cheaper and that both sides would sell at the same price. We agreed on that one too. But then another week passed and they started to say once again that we were not exporting the right amount. Then Abdul Mahdi came to Hewlêr on January 22-23 and we met several times to talk about the nature of the 375,000-barrel expectation. I prepared for him a timetable for the whole year instead of just three months to make sure the problem would not rise again. He was pleased with the timetable and took it back with him to Baghdad. So, that timetable, the Baghdad meetings of December and the meeting here all became one package that was passed in the Iraqi parliament on January 29. It was all discussed and explained about the timetable, the technical issues and what KRG would do on its part and what Baghdad would do.


Rudaw: Then why is Baghdad not sending KRG’s money now?


Ashti Hawrami: There might be different reasons. One, they were surprised even though everyone knew that the price of oil had gone down. At first we were talking of a budget of 174 trillion IQD but then it came down to 125 trillion due to the fall in the price of oil. In spite of that, we didn’t ask for more. We said that we would only want our 17 percent, taking into account the fall in the price of oil. The agreement was that we would receive our budget of 1/12 monthly and we would continue producing the 250,000 barrels based on the agreed timetable. That is how Iraq’s budget in general is designed. For example, Basrah is expected to export 2.75 million of barrels daily, but it has been exporting less than 2 million barrels. Was anyone fined or punished there? No, because they expect to raise production in the following months and reach the goal and compensate it that way. That is the case with us, too.


Rudaw: Adil Abdul Mahdi says that in February the KRG had handed over to Baghdad only 40 percent of what was agreed at Ceyhan, but he is pleased with March. And you say that you have honored 97 percent of the agreement. Also, as we speak, how many barrels of oil does the KRG export through Ceyhan per day?


Ashti Hawrami: I will show you the dates and details on a chart later, but I would tell you that at the moment we are giving to SOMO 275,000 barrels of Kurdish oil daily. So if we are talking today, then yes we are providing to SOMO more than the agreed 250,000 barrels. And the North Oil Company isn’t really providing 300,000 barrels. It is around 130-140,000 barrels which we hand back to them too. We do this extra because, during the first 40 days, we produced less and our commitment is to meet the agreed amount. But sometimes the power goes off in Turkey, or the pipelines get hit, which results in shutting down the exporting process and in turn would affect our both sides. We both (Hewlêr and Baghdad) have to then accept the reality, because it is something happening outside our areas. For instance, the exports stopped for four days this month. The pipes were hit and it took time to repair them, but as soon as it was done we provided to SOMO 275,000 barrels.


Rudaw: Who is targeting the pipelines?


Ashti Hawrami: People who steal the oil. In an area about 20-30 km behind the border some people hit the pipes and steal the oil and it takes a day or two to find the damage and fix it. We do not have any disputes over the figures. Mr. Abdul Mahdi and I have the same numbers. The issue is the overall production. When you talk about budget, all over the world that is how it works, you look at the total sum of export not the day-to-day.


Rudaw: Then what is the dispute about?


Ashti Hawrami: One of the disputes is that they say you have extra exports which you are not giving to us, therefore we will reduce your budget share. But that was not our agreement. Our agreement was that we will give them 250,000 based on the timetable and chart I showed you. If we have extra exports, it is to pay back the cash we borrowed last year to pay the salaries of August, September and October. That extra oil had already been sold and we are only giving it back to the contractors who had bought it.


Rudaw: Had that point -- of paying back in oil the money you had borrowed for salaries -- not been agreed in your talks with Baghdad?


Ashti Hawrami: Let me tell you this way: in our first meeting in December when our delegation under Prime Minister Barzani went to Baghdad, they asked us to give them the entire amount of oil. We said we will give you 150,000 barrels. They said 150,000 is not enough and because we will give you the budget, try to increase the number. We agreed to raise it to 250,000 barrels on the condition that they will add the payments of the Peshmerga forces in their budget. We made that condition very clear. But they insisted on the extra production we have. We admitted that we have that, but also told them that we had borrowed money because they had not paid us the budget of 2014. We said give us back that money (for 2014), then we can talk about giving you all of our production. They said we have no money and we said then we are not obliged to give you more than 250,000 barrels. We said we need the rest. Then, in the January 8 agreement, it says in their own handwriting that we would sell our oil on a fixed price. It shows that they agree to our right to exporting extra oil. We had agreed on the price, on transparent sales, on accountability, etc. They knew all that. But now they have reneged and use the extra oil as an excuse to play down our honoring of the agreement from 97 percent to 73 percent. They also hold all the challenges with the pipeline in Turkey and other technical issues against us to say that we have honored only 40 percent of our agreement. But even then, at 40 percent which is their calculation, Baghdad should still give us $440 million a month. But when we ask for it, they say they have no money, so try to cope like everyone else.


Rudaw: What do they mean by everyone else?


Ashti Hawrami: They mean the rest of Iraq.


Rudaw: But the rest of Iraq receives salaries all right.


Ashti Hawrami: I know. Then they cut the $440 million in half under the pretext that they need to pay the rest of the country, in which case they end up giving us $200 million, which might only be enough to cover the Peshmerga and one government department.


Rudaw: Is the 150,000 barrels in Kirkuk produced by the KRG?


Ashti Hawrami: No, it is handed over to us by the North Oil Company and we will hand it back to them at Ceyhan. We also hand to them our 275,000 barrels, which adds up to 425,000 barrels in total. Iraq has not been able to meet the 300,000-barrel commitment yet due to infrastructural problems that I mentioned earlier.


Rudaw: Do you have faith that Baghdad will send the 17 percent share of KRG’s budget once you have fully met your side of the agreement and export the oil they ask?


Ashti Hawrami: That is a political question, and one has to find out what the intentions of the federal government are on this subject. If it is just a technical issue, we have explained it all and met our commitment. So the issue is not technical, it is money and political. That is how it should be addressed.


Rudaw: If you couldn’t reach a deal with Baghdad, can the Kurdistan Region provide its own budget without Baghdad?



Ashti Hawrami: Our budget has been calculated on 550,000 barrels of oil. That is what our 17 percent budget share reflects at $56 per barrel. Therefore, if we can produce 550,000 barrels per day and sell it at $56, there we have our budget.


Rudaw: Can the Ministry of Natural Resources export 600,000 barrels per day?


Ashti Hawrami: From April on we can export 550,000 barrels without even the portion of the North Oil Company. The following month we are talking 600,000 and the following months it will be even more, but it won’t be fewer than 600,000 barrels. But even with that increase, taking into account the infrastructural challenges, etc, we will still get the amount that we initially agreed with Baghdad.


Rudaw: Is it in Kurdistan’s interest to sell its oil independently or with Baghdad?


Ashti Hawrami: It is a lot better for the KRG if it can do so with Baghdad, and that is why we went to Baghdad and signed an agreement. The agreed budget was also in our interest. We could pay back our debts on the side and would receive our budget, which wasn’t perfect, but still satisfactory. We agreed that this agreement and cooperation with Baghdad was best for us and would also pave the way to resolve other bigger issues, such as the $13 billion Baghdad owes from last year. But now it all turned out complete opposite. We give them the full amount of oil and receive half or quarter of the money. So, economically it would have been best for us to work with Baghdad, but now it would be three times worse if we continue.


Rudaw: You are the minister of natural resources, so can you provide Kurdistan’s budget from the sales of Kurdish oil and give up on Baghdad if these problems continue to persist?


Ashti Hawrami: Economically, I can answer your question. But in politics it is not just about money. There are other calculations. But if you are asking about money, then yes, I can say that by April and May I can provide the equivalent of the budget that is expected to come from Baghdad. But there is the question of having a market, not having technical or transportation issues, etc. In that case, yes we can provide full budget in April and May.


Rudaw: Have you found the right market for your oil? Do you have buyers?


Ashti Hawrami: Yes. When we started last year, we had some problems with the first tanker, but later both tankers went through without a problem. We have up to now exported 50-60 tankers of oil and it has all been sold at market price. We have also received all the money in Kurdistan and used it for government salaries. After 12 months of problems last year, everyone has now learned how to deal with Kurdistan’s oil. Also, when new oil shows up in the market people do not understand it in the beginning. It would take a while for them to know what it can produce for them, how to handle it technically, how to make the most of it, in what refinery to refine it? The world learned all that in the last 12 months.


Rudaw: You had told Rudaw earlier that by the end of 2015 your production could reach 1 million bpd. Do you still stand by that?


Ashti Hawrami: We had drawn the plan three years ago to reach 1 million bpd of production in the Kurdistan Region. We would of course use some of that amount for local refining, but our goal was to export 1 million barrels and even more in the following years. But we got 3-6 months behind because when we made those plans there was no Daash , our budget had not been cut, the companies were not unpaid. Then some companies walked out for a while as you know, which affected our investment, and oil prices have fallen now. But our goal is 800-850,000 barrels by the end of the year. If we can do just 600,000 it would still be the equivalent of our budget from Baghdad. If we reach 600,000 barrels, we can also compensate the companies which would encourage them for more investment.


Rudaw: You said that some companies left due to the Daash war. Have they returned?


Ashti Hawrami: Yes, all of them have returned.


Rudaw: Speaking of transparency, is there corruption in the oil sector in the Kurdistan Region?


Ashti Hawrami: In the investment and production contracts of which I am in charge, I have made sure there is no corruption at all. In the case of production and the oil giants, I have not let any corruption or anyone to benefit directly or indirectly from the contracts.


Rudaw: Because of the financial crisis, the government is in debt. I want to know how much it has borrowed and from whom?


Ashti Hawrami: As far as I am aware, we have borrowed $500 million from Turkey. They have promised another $500 which they might send sometime soon. That is a loan which we can decide in the future whether they will get it back in oil, gas or the money. There is another kind of loan which we have done as the ministry. We have borrowed cash advance in return for oil. We later agree on the payback mechanism. Some companies and buyers have lent us money, around $1-2 billion which we will pay back, and that in itself is proof that Kurdistan’s oil has a market. So, this one is less of a debt. It is cash advance for a commodity they have bought and wait to receive.


Rudaw: How about the domestic loan?


Ashti Hawrami: The domestic loan is also two parts. One has to do with the ministry of natural resources where we buy gasoline for the power plants. It is quite a burden on the government everyday spending $9-10 million on the production of electricity. Back when we had local production and used to get our budget from Baghdad, we would simply give money to contractors to provide the fuel for the power plants. But in 2014 when we stopped receiving our budget, we could not pay the local contractors, yet we still need the fuel. So the MNR owes these contractors the debt which has accumulated and we will pay them back in the form of crude oil, some other byproduct or in cash. We also have borrowed cash from some companies.


Rudaw: Finally, I would like to hear your response to a news article in Korea Times that said $31 million had gone missing in contract deals.


Ashti Hawrami: We answered that report in a statement. It is completely baseless. Obviously, there is an internal dispute in South Korea which I don’t want to get into the details. An MP has made the accusation against one of their former prime ministers and had mentioned us in the case. We pulled out our files and archives and proved that any amount of money we had received from Korea had gone into the KRG coffers and used for government projects. We published these documents and sent the evidence to the Korean MP, the prime minister and the newspaper as well, and we sent them to the local newspapers here that had published the report.

http://rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/250320151
Russian Girenak Joseph, who visited Kirkuk in Kurdistan as a part of his tour throu the 1870 - 1873 AD, who published the results of his trip & his studies later in 1879, in the 4th volume in the Bulletin of the Caucasus department of the Royal Geographical Russian Society estimated Kirkuk's population as many as 12-50,000 people, & he emphasized that except 40 Christian families, the rest of the population were Kurds. As for The Turkmen & Arabs, they have not been already existed at the time.
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ALAN
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Kirkuk oil flow to Ceyhan halted

SULAIMANIA -- The Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline halted operations Monday, for a second time in a month, due to technical issues, according to a Reuters report.

A source who spoke to Reuters stated that exports via the pipeline had reached 425,000 barrels per day (bpd) in recent days.

The pipeline's operations were previously halted on March 9, also due to technical issues. Pumping resumed five days later on March 14.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) announced that oil production in the Kirkuk fields in early March had increased to 400,000 bpd.

http://www.nrttv.com/en/detailsnews/2015/03/30/kirkuk-oil-flow-to-ceyhan-halted
Russian Girenak Joseph, who visited Kirkuk in Kurdistan as a part of his tour throu the 1870 - 1873 AD, who published the results of his trip & his studies later in 1879, in the 4th volume in the Bulletin of the Caucasus department of the Royal Geographical Russian Society estimated Kirkuk's population as many as 12-50,000 people, & he emphasized that except 40 Christian families, the rest of the population were Kurds. As for The Turkmen & Arabs, they have not been already existed at the time.
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davidh
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Is there a new pipeline ? When is it due to be completed? Dedicated for Shaikan heavy oil maybe....this was released on Friday, BBC:

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-32220764

"If we don't reach a lasting solution, we will have to handle it
through our own export of oil," says Dr Sindi. Kurdistan is this month
said to be completing a new pipeline to its northern neighbour,
Turkey.
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ALAN
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This was never developed or awarded to anyone

Quote:
 
Daash Militants Set Fire on Oil Field in Makhmour Area

15.04.2015 15:13

On Wednesday 15th April, Daash (IS) militants set fire on an oil field near Makhmour and Qaraj area east of Kurdistan Region capital Hewlêr.

Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) official in Qaraj sub-district Ismail Mohammed told BasNews that the oil field is located between Peshmerga and IS militants’ frontlines, and it is about 2 kilometres away from Peshmerga forces.”

“It is believed that the oil field was set on fire, but did not exploded,” said Mohammed, “IS militants attempted to use the black smoke as a cover and hide and out of the sight of the International Coalition jets under the black.”

“The oil field was first built during the Ba’ath regime and then was blocked and no one worked on it ”, He added,

Oil smuggling has been one of the important financial sources for the IS in Iraq and Syria, however they have bombed those oilfields which they have been defeated or withdrew from the area.

http://www.basnews.com/en/economy/2015/04/15/islamic-state-militants-set-fire-on-oil-fields-in-makhmour-area/
Russian Girenak Joseph, who visited Kirkuk in Kurdistan as a part of his tour throu the 1870 - 1873 AD, who published the results of his trip & his studies later in 1879, in the 4th volume in the Bulletin of the Caucasus department of the Royal Geographical Russian Society estimated Kirkuk's population as many as 12-50,000 people, & he emphasized that except 40 Christian families, the rest of the population were Kurds. As for The Turkmen & Arabs, they have not been already existed at the time.
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Worldwar2boy
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il flows out of Iraq’s Kurdistan region have hit a new high reaching a rate of 650,000 barrels per day, according to reports.

Reuters, citing a shipping source, said flows through the pipeline from Kurdistan to the Turkish coast have risen sharply in recent days.

Earlier this month pipeline operations, which have been disrupted at times due to fighting with Daash , were said to be carrying around 450,000 barrels per day.

The apparent upturn in daily volumes would be good news for Genel Energy (LON:GENL) as the London listed oil firm is one of the main partners in the Taq Taq and Tawke oilfields which feed crude into the pipeline.

It comes as the oil market continues to focus on the relatively high level of crude supply and as Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, set its own new record high.

The OPEC figurehead revealed it would maintain record output in excess of 10mln barrels per day during April. Stats for March previously marked Saudi exports at 10.3mln bpd, up from the preceding month’s record of 10.2mln barrels.

Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi said the Kingdom was happy to supply its customers with what they want, and currently that’s 10mln barrels of oil per day.

Experts say the rate of supply growth from OPEC members could overshadow the decline in North American output that has helped support crude prices lately.

In London trading Brent Crude was up slightly at US$63.60 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediary futures added 0.7% to US$56.15 a barrel.

http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/61871/kurdistan-crude-exports-seen-at-a-new-record-high-61871.html


650k !!

I thought goal for END of this year was only 500K ?
We're not even halfway through and already OVER 500k!

Definitely 1,000,000 by the end of this year !
biji kurd u kurdistan !!
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