OREANDA-NEWS. January 10, 2013. In January the 18th, Mr. Liaybi announced for the discovery of Dima oil field 2368 meters deep which contains lite oil, and Mr. Liaybi said that the discovery was made by the Iraqi efforts and ensured that the exploration is continuous to find more formations in the same field.

In February the 4th Mr. Noori Al- Maliki the Prime minister with the presence of Mr. Hussain Al- Shahristani the vice prime minister for power, Mr. Liaybi in addition to representatives from the international companies and local responsible people, opened the first floating port 850 thousand BPD with a cost of 1.6 billion dollars within a project to raise the exportation power   and it is worthy to mention that, this port is one of five ports 850 thousand BPD for each.

In June the 5t, the council of ministers authorized Mr. Liaybi to sign contracts with the Jordanian ministry of power & minerals to enforce the cooperation between the two countries in the field of gas.

   In May the 30th, the 4th licensing round was launched which involves 12 exploratory areas for two days as the following:-

-          The first exploratory area in Naynawa governorate 7300 square kilometers with carbonic prospects (gas).
-          The second exploratory area in Anbar governorate 8000 square kilometers with carbonic prospects (gas).
-          The third exploratory area in Anbar governorate 7000 square kilometers with carbonic prospects (gas).
-          The fourth exploratory area in Anbar governorate 7000 square kilometers with carbonic prospects (gas).
-          The fifth exploratory area in Anbar governorate 8000 square kilometers with carbonic prospects (gas).
-          The sixth exploratory area between Anbar & Najaf governorates 9000 square kilometers with carbonic prospects (gas).
-          The seventh exploratory area between Qadisya, Babel & Najaf governorates 6000 square kilometers with carbonic prospects (oil).
-          The eighth exploratory area between Diala & Wasit governorates 8000 square kilometers with carbonic prospects (gas).
-          The ninth exploratory area in Basra governorate 900 square kilometers with carbonic prospects (oil).
-          The tenth exploratory area between Muthanna & Thiqar governorates 5500 square kilometers with oil prospects.
-          The eleventh exploratory area on the border of Najaf & Muthanna governorates 8000 square kilometers with carbonic prospects (oil).
-          The twelfth exploratory area in Najaf & Muthanna governorates 8000 square kilometers with carbonic prospects (oil).

   Pakistan Petroleum took the contract to rehabilitate the 8th area and the consortium of Russian Lukoil & Japanese Inpex took the contract to rehabilitate the 10th area, and the twelfth area rehabilitation was taken by the consortium of Russian Bashnift & British Premier.

   The Iraqi ministry of oil signed a contract in its final form in Monday the 5th of November 2012 with Pakistan Petroleum, for the exploratory area (No. 8) 6000 square kilometers with carbonic structures / gas, which is located between Diyala & Wasit governorates, which was offered in the 4th licensing round, And it is worthy to mention that, Pakistan Petroleum offered 5.38USD  wages profit per barrel and the minimum exchange requirements was 100 million dollars and the contract was valid since the date of signature.

   The Iraqi ministry of oil signed a contract in its final form in Wednesday the 7th of November 2012 with the consortium of Lukoil Russian & Inpex Japanese, for the exploratory area (No. 10) 5500 square kilometers with carbonic structures / oil, which is located between Muthanna & Thiqar, which was offered in the 4th licensing round, And it is worthy to mention that, the two companies consortium offered 5.99USD  wages profit per barrel and the minimum exchange requirements were 100 million dollars and the contract was valid since the date of signature.

   The Iraqi ministry of oil signed a contract in its final form in Thursday the 8th of November 2012 with the consortium of Bashnift Russian (JSOC) & Premier British (PREMIER OIL), for the exploratory area (No. 12) 8000 square kilometers with carbonic structures / oil, which is located between Najaf & Muthanna governorates, which was offered in the 4th licensing round, And it is worthy to mention that, the two companies consortium offered 5USD  wages profit per barrel.

   The Iraqi ministry of oil signed a contract in its initial form with the consortium of Kuwait Energy & Emirati Dragon Oil to rehabilitate the 9th exploratory area which was offered in the 4th licensing round, And it is worthy to mention that, the two companies consortium offered 6.24USD  wages profit per barrel. 

   The ministry of oil of Iraq signed a contract with the Russian Lukoil Mideast Ltd. & the Korean Samsung, to apply the project of import and build oil collecting system & central processing system for the west Qurna field- second phase and the ministry's plan to reach higher production levels will be reflected positively on the exported quantities and this contract is considered as a beginning to start completing the surface facilities and help speeding the production. and it is worthy to mention that the contract value is (998) million dollars and the project is supposed to be completed within 29 months, as well as this project contains the design, supply and builds the crude oil collecting system & the central processing system in addition to the water supply system. And the contract was offered during the second licensing round in 2009 and Lukoil & the Norwegian company Schtat oil won the contract with the price of 1, 15 dollar per barrel and production power of 1, 8 million BPD.

   The Iraqi Ministry of oil launched the first phase of the strategic alternative pipeline project to pump crude oil from the main station (Ps1) north Rumaila in Basra governorate. And The technical staff of the oil ministry could accomplish the first phase of the project and started in Tuesday 4/12/2012 to pump the oil with a pumping power of 800 thousand BPD from the main station (Ps1) in Basra, passing through (Ps2) in Samawa and ends in (Ps3) in Najaf, and these stations are the first phase of the project which contains the extension of (42) knots, 441kilometers with a time table of 10 months to the project accomplishment.

   In the 30th of January, the council of ministers authorized Mr. Liaybi the oil minister to estimate the indemnification to squatters on the state property to help them finding an alternative housing & exempt them from legal procedures.

   In June the 3th Iraq signed a contract with Iran for mutual cooperation in the fields of energy & oil to ensure raising the mutual cooperation in the field of exploration, drilling, up streaming, training and mutual coordination in OPEC as well make an agreement for the best investment of the mutual oil fields.

   In July the 18th Mr. Hussain Al- Shahristani the deputy prime minister for power, opens the Halfaya oil field which is one of the largest in Maysan governorate 35 kilometers south east Omara city, which is the center of the governorate. And it is worthy to mention that this field contain 16 billion barrels with eight explored reservoirs, and the oil ministry gave the contract rehabilitation contract to the consortium of (Chinese national oil company 50 %), (Total French 25%) and (Petronas Malaysian 25%), during the 2nd licensing round in2009.

Refining:

   In April the 5th Mr. Liaybi opened the second unit of Diwaniya refinery with a production power of 10 thousand BPD which will elevate the total production of the refinery to 20 thousand BPD, and it is worthy to mention that the total cost of the project was 63 billion dinars and the project was applied within one year in cooperation with the ministry of industry.

Exportation:

   The oil ministry achieved its target in the oil sales for 2012.

   The monthly announcement of the ministry oil exports in detail, which is a tradition the ministry used to do according to its work strategy. And it is worthy to mention hat, the ministry achieved 71,827 million barrels in the last march 2012 which is the highest export & income since 2 decades.

   The oil    ministry celebrated in march the 5th, the issuance of the first report of the oil exportation incomes that was made by (PWC) company which is an international audit company worked under the supervision & funding of the international bank which refers to the independency of the report maker as well as its thoughtful contents. At the same time the report have a good match between the government incomes & the international companies payments that are 34 Asian, European and American companies, By comparing between the total payments of the international companies and the government incomes which are 41 billion dollars and there was 700 dollars difference which means 2 dollars for each 100 million dollars, considering it a very little number in comparison to the reports of the other members. and according to the demand of the stakeholders council and (PWC) correspondences, the ministry of oil shown all the needed information about the oil incomes for the year 2009 which contained all the south oil company production through the Turkish Ceyhan port, in addition to the very small exported quantities to Jordan that can't be compared to the huge exported daily quantities through the mentioned southern port and the northern port.

Exploration:

-          The first seismic team is continuous in surveying the field of Mirjan west Kifl (Karbala governorate).
-          The second seismic team is continuous in surveying the field of East Baghdad (Baghdad Governorate)
-          The first seismic team is continuous in surveying the (Dhafriya) field program in Wasit Governorate.
-          The third seismic team is continuous in surveying the Khasfat Ana (Anbar governorate).
-          The announcement to the international oil companies to participate in the rehabilitation of Nasirya field.
-          The announcement of the intention of the ministry to set up a fifth round of petroleum licenses

Drilling:

-          In December the 2nd, the Iraqi Drilling Company (IDC) gained the ISO certificate for its work according to the international standards.
-          IDC drilled & rehabilitated 228 oil wells according to its plan for the current year depending on the national efforts and international companies.
-          The plan to raise the production to more than 400 thousand BPD.
-          IDC drilled 140 oil wells in Iraq, 76 of them were drilled depending on the national efforts & 58 of them will be given to the winning contractors of the licensing rounds to be drilled.
-          Give the tender of 60 wells to the American Baker Hughes drilling company, in Zubair field as the style of the Ready Project "key in the hand" with a time table of 3 years and 640 million dollars cost.

Distribution & Transportation:

-          In march the 8th, the oil ministry held a public licensing round to transport the oil products for the oil & electricity ministries, and the round was presented by 35 Iraqi specialized companies while 100 axes was depended and the Iraqi companies wan 90% of the axes & offers.
-          The oil ministry succeeded in applying the government decision to supply the private sector generators with 30 liters of gas oil for each Iraqi citizen starting from July to the end of September to elevate the operation time to 12 hours during summer.
-          The oil ministry supplied the citizens with the gas ticket to ensure the distribution of the oil products to the Iraqi families as 50 liters of kerosene for each individual.
-          In October the 23th, the Iraqi Oil Pipelines Company (OPC) signed a contract with the Korean Kogas to extend 2 pipelines 110 kilometers for each for dry & liquefied gas between Karkuk and Baiji governorates as a step to finish the 7000 kilometers network between the governorates. And it is worthy to mention that, the pipeline extension tender was public and Kogas wan the tender because they offered the lower price between 8 companies, and the time table of the project was 22 months with 128 million dollars cost.
-          Supply LPG for the Iraqi people with low price & high flow.

The Inspector General Office:

   The I.G office of the oil ministry issued its annual report for 2011 and the inspector general Mr. Hilal Ismael said that the whole cases for 2011 was 400 cases in addition to 185 circulated cases since 2010, 17 of them was assigned to the Integrity, 60 of them was sent to the specialized courts & 9 cases to the central embedding committee, and it is worthy to mention that, the audit processes contained:-

-          The auditing of 361 orders before the assignment with costs of (183,488,584,396) Iraqi dinars & (8, 597, 977, 654, 2) U.S dollars.
-          The auditing of 321 orders after the assignment with costs of (183,488,584,396) Iraqi dinars & (8, 597, 977, 654, 2) U.S dollars.
-          The auditing of 55 financial transactions with costs of (20,613,515,908).

   In addition to the audit of 678 cases related to management issues like passing some oil formations to the law of salaries for the year 2008. At the same time, the office did 3967 inspection visits in the companies & directorates of the oil sector in many governorates as mentioned in the annual report of the year 2011.

   Mr. Hilal Ismael said that the I.G office issued its annual report for the year 2011 which included the activities of audit, review, inspect, investigation and the accomplishments for the year 2011 continuing the way of the office to fix the negative issues which are important in the oil industry via the reports which contain the opinion & recommendations to fix. 

   He added that the report distributed on 18 chapters:

   The first chapter contained a brief about the office, its establishment mechanism & structure.

    The second chapter contained the plans of the ministry for 2011and it's depend in its financial indicators on the operational budgets & incomes during the year, and it is worthy to mention that, the oil formations productive expenses was about (10761448) million dinars and the incomes are about (15435156) dinars contained the evaluation of the financial audit, contracts & tenders divisions accomplishments via   following up the filling forms financial interests watching of the meant people as well as the coordination with the integrity agency & follow up the Justice and Accountability Law over the oil sector employees.

   The third chapter contained the activities of the office in the investigation activities of the field visits.

   The fourth chapter contained the accomplishments of the office by the contracts audit, the type of the diagnosed irregularities & the recommendations to the oil minister to avoid the irregularities.

   The fifth chapter contained the performance evaluation of the oil sector through the last year, as well as the office audit the invest projects in the ministry and wrote the notes & recommendations to the relevant authorities.

  The sixth chapter contained the invest projects evaluation which was 82 projects.

   The seventh chapter contained the negative issues in the national strategy to fight the corruption as well as the other found issues in the last year & reevaluation of taking the given services of the ministry which was in the eighth chapter.
   The ninth chapter contained the Issue of opinion and advice provided by the Office to all directorates of the Ministry.
   The tenth chapter contained the ministry committees which are membered by the office.
   The eleventh chapter concentrated on the generalizations & directions of the I.G office.

   The twelfth chapter contained the plans of the office for 2012 which consisted of the inspection divisions plan of the office as well as audit the contracts within the authority of the minister and the council of ministers general secretariat and participate in the committees as an observer and follow up samples of the service contracts, and the ministry plan for 2012 concentrated on the invest budget to apply the planned projects and the allocations which was 10650000 million dinars.

   The thirteenth chapter contained the how to calculate the financial budgets of the ministry.

   It is worthy to mention that, the I.G office issues a report every year to follow up the projects & the oil companies' work.

   The I.G office issued a conclusion about its accomplishments for the first half of the year 2012, the financial issues, contracts, investigations & the inspection visits and the progress in treating the negative issues. While the value of the inspected contracts until June the 30th was 142782361507 dinars & 2010155040 dollars & 9347560 euros, and the accomplished cases was 89 of 111 cases, 3 of them was assigned to the integrity, 5 to the judgment council & 3 to the inclusion.

The Media Office:
-          Honoring certificates & awards for the special role in communicating with the readable, visible & audible media.
-          Organizing a book fair in cooperation with the Iraqi Publishers Union from 6 – 21 June in occasion of the international journalism day.
-          Organizing a celebration in the occasion of the sports day to honor the athletes, martyr & dead athletes' families and oil clubs & teams.
-          The media office succeeded to communicate with the media to publish the news & activities to the public with transparency and professional, as well as follow up of the people's complaints to find the solutions.
-          The Cooperation with the local, Arabic & international media agencies.
-          More than 1450 declarations and media& journalized meetings (locally, nationally & internationally) with the oil ministry spokesman as 4 per day which is considered as a record.
-          Follow up more than 323 complaints & advices in the mass media or mail to take the suitable solutions.

Conferences & Symposiums & other activities:

-A celebration in March the 4th in the woman's day which is a yearly tradition in the ministry.
-   A conference in March the 9th by the directorate of the studies, planning & follow up to discuss the establishment of special institutions.
-  The holding of a symposium in July the 2nd, named as (to the best investment of the national fortune) by cooperation with Basra Gas Company & experts to discuss the ways to develop the oil industry.
-  The holding of an educating seminar in may the 8th named as (unified contracts & tenders) to review and evaluate the ministry procedures in the field of contracts & tenders.
-  The oil ministry appointed all the graduates of the oil institutes for the years 2010 & 2011.
-   The formation of a committee in august the 7th, to help the orphanages & infirm.