suntiger

http://en.aswataliraq.info/Default1.aspx?page=article_page&id=141168&l=1 2/25/2011 10:35 AM BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Dozens of protestors started to head for al-Tahrir square in central Baghdad despite a ban on vehicles and bikes in the city in response to calls from social websites and civil society organizations against bad services and corruption. The organizers have used Facebook, Twitter and websites to circulate invitations for demonstrations on February 25, calling them the "Iraqi revolution." A Facebook page called "The Iraqi Revolution" includes still pictures and videos of previous demonstrations in Iraq and claims nearly 20,000 supporters. On Tuesday evening, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh and Baghdad military operation spokesman Gen. Qassim Atta held a joint news conference regarding the planned demonstrations. "The Iraqi government welcomes any demonstration by Iraqi people as long as it's a peaceful demonstration," said Al-Dabbagh. However Atta warned Friday's protesters that there could be possible attacks against them. "Based on our intelligence information, al-Qaeda terrorists, former Baathists and other terrorist groups are planning to attack protesters on Friday by car bombs, suicide bombers and pistols equipped with silencers," Atta said in the news conference, which was broadcast on Iraqiya state television. The Iraqi government was formed in December, nine months after an inconclusive national election. This is the second elected government in the nearly eight years after a U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein.

Sometimes you feel like a nut! Sometimes you don't!

http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2011/02/23/strikes-sweep-iraq Author: Falah Alwan Strikes in the [state-owned] leather industries were held on 1 February. The workers called for safety benefits and remunerations. They wanted to expose the lies of the administration about the bankruptcy of their company. They have more than one contract with the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Trade and other ministries to provide them with leather goods. The third demand was against “self-financing”, which is a kind of privatisation. The strike continued for two weeks, until 14 February. The administration promised to answer the workers’ demands, except the demand safety benefits. In Kut, there was a strike in a textile factory. Workers shut down all parts of the factory. Because of the situation in that factory, US troops came directly to the factory and surrounded it. The administration has promised to answer the workers’ demands, but there are no official or written documents — only a “promise”. Oil workers employed by the Northern Oil Company in Kirkuk have also been protesting. They have a particular system of contracts; they want to be full-time employees and have full contracts with the company. They have been working on the current system of temporary contacts for more than 10 years, but the administration has refused their demands. They threatened to hold a strike and stop oil production. There was a lot of support for them from the oil unions in Basra and other provinces. Their committees, especially those which affiliate to the FWCUI, threatened to hold a supportive strike in Basra. They are preparing for a strike in the event that the Ministry of Oil refuses to answer the demands of the Northern Oil Company. Two or three of the main workers’ committees in the south, at the pipelines and refineries in Basra, met on 11 February. I attended the meeting and they said they are prepared to take strike action in solidarity with the Northern Oil Company workers. There has been no action yet but I think the workers are very supportive. There is also an issue around workers working for foreign companies earning more than workers working for Iraqi companies; the oil workers’ committees in the south are calling for a levelling-up to the same levels of pay and benefits. They are also prepared to strike over this issue. The main committee organising workers at the Northern Oil Company is affiliated to the GFIW. I have spoken with the president of this committee and he is resolved to continue his struggle against the administration at the company and against the Ministry of Oil. In Basra itself, electricity workers demonstrated for two days. Workers who work in high towers to connect electricity to other stations have risk payments, but the Ministry of Electricity are refusing to pay up. They held their first day of demonstration inside the electricity station, and the second day was in front of the government buildings in Basra. Over the last two weeks, we have been in contact with workers in Egypt, including the leaders of the new independent unions. We are also in contact with workers’ organisations in Tunisia and Algeria. The participation and influence of workers and their unions in the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt is very clear. They were the leaders of the demonstrations. Our attitude is that we want the workers in Iraq to follow the same model and hold vast demonstrations and protests. We are building for new strategies for the workers’ movement in Iraq, to be part of the changing political situation. There are mass demands calling for change in Iraq; most demonstrators are calling for an end to the existing parliament, and to elect a new one. It is a wave of change in Iraq. To build support, activists worldwide can make sure these reports are spread as widely as possible to inform people of the realities inside Iraq. The government has been saying the planned demonstration on 25 February is being organised by Ba’thists. We need to tell people that the workers themselves want to hold the demonstrations. It is the workers, the unemployed, students, young people — the freedom lovers — who want to change things, not the Ba’thists and fascist parties in Iraq. We need to widely distribute the reports of the workers in Iraq. We will take part in the demonstration on 25 February; it could be a very big step forward for workers’ struggle and the independent workers’ movement.

Drew Barrymore is getting tired of waiting on RV!

I did not see another place to post this! Why not invest in oil? Canada anyone! T. Boone Pickens has $500 million invested! He owns Canadian Oil Sands (CNQ) and Suncor (SU). http://www.gurufocus.com/news.php?id=26613 Future burns bright for Canada's oilsands http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Yedlin+Future+burns+bright+Canada+oilsands/4322886/story.html

I just think it is funny some folks jump to RV since the U.S. Treasury is over there. We are still holding Iraq's hands!

I think the U.S. Treasury is in Iraq to help find the 40 billion missing since they meet in April 2011. http://www.iamb.info/pr/pr011811.PDF “The IAMB further discussed arrangements for a final report on the operations of the IAMB since its establishment in 2003. The next meeting of the IAMB, together with COFE, is scheduled for late April 2011. The final meeting of the IAMB is scheduled for late June 2011, at which time the final report will be issued and a press briefing will be held. COFE will continue to meet separately in the interim.”

http://english.ahram.org.eg/~/NewsContent/3/12/6294/Business/Economy/Iraq-oil-exports-highest-since-Saddam.aspx Production increase set to cover budget deficit, says oil ministryAFP Wednesday 23 Feb 2011 Iraq's oil exports and revenues from crude sales in January hit their highest levels since the 2003 US-led invasion which ousted Saddam Hussein, the oil ministry announced on Wednesday. Iraq exported a total of 67 million barrels of oil last month, generating US$6.082 billion in income at an average price of $90.78 a barrel, according to figures published by the ministry. "It's the highest exports and revenues for Iraq since 2003, and this will cover the budget deficit if it continues," ministry spokesman Assem Jihad told AFP. Jihad said production had increased to between 2.6 and 2.7m barrels per day (bpd), and was projected to increase three million bpd by the end of the year. Oil sales account for around 90 per cent of government income. The country's budget, approved last Sunday, factors in oil prices of $76.50 per barrel and average exports of 2.2m bpd. Most of the January increase in exports passed through the southern port of Basra, which already accounts for the vast majority of foreign sales, the ministry's figures showed. A total of 54m barrels of oil were exported from Basra, while the remainder passed through the Ceyhan oil pipeline connecting northern Iraq with Turkey.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gMpWQy5p78ygLRCj5aQ1yfW8kRNw?docId=CNG.93a6d1ce40a0787bc083884b50eba293.311 Radical Shiite cleric Sadr 'back in Iraq' (AFP) – 1 hour ago NAJAF, Iraq — Radical Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr returned to the holy city of Najaf from Iran on Wednesday, a source within his office told AFP. "Moqtada al-Sadr arrived at his home in Al-Hannana in Najaf this afternoon," said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We don't know if this visit will be for a long time or not." Sadr returned to Iran, where he spent four years of self-imposed exile, on January 20 after having spent two weeks in Iraq. While in Iraq last month, the firebrand cleric called on his supporters to resist the US "occupation" by all means. He had left Iraq at the end of 2006 or early in 2007, according to US and Iraqi officials, and had reportedly been pursuing religious studies in the Iranian holy city of Qom. The controversial Sadr gained widespread popularity among Shiites in the months after the 2003 US-led invasion, and his Mahdi Army militia later battled American and Iraqi government forces in several bloody confrontations. But in August 2008, Sadr suspended the activities of the Mahdi Army, which once numbered in the tens of thousands, after major US and Iraqi assaults on its strongholds in Baghdad and southern Iraq in the spring.

I assumed the subject of CBI not being updated.

It is updated! Same 1170 1168!

I usually think stuff like this is the reason there would not be a LOP! With a LOP there pay would be around 6400 dinar a month.

http://www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20110223070858 By Saman Dazzayi Baghdad - A governmental legal advisor said on Monday that the Council of Ministers has agreed upon an 80% reduction in the salaries of the three presidencies. The announcement came one day after parliament ratified the country's $82.6 billion budget for 2011. Fadel Mohammed Jawad told AKnews that the move is part of a governmental bid to improve the economic situation and reduce salary differences between the different grades of state employee. "The move also includes reducing the salaries of former MPs, ministers, governors and other grades of executive retirees," he said. Iraqi deputies currently earn 32 million Iraqi Dinars ($27,220) per month whereas a state school teacher has a monthly salary of between $450 and $600. Although approved by the Cabinet of Ministers, the new bill is subject to a parliamentary vote for ratification. Many Iraqi cities have been the scene of public demonstrations in recent weeks with angry protestors demanding better public services, employment opportunities and the effective implementation of the government's much criticized food subsidizing ration card system. Although Iraq's dilapidated infrastructure is certainly due to the long years of siege, war and economic sanctions the country has suffered, many observers have attributed the government's failure to provide the Iraqi citizen with fundamental services eight years after the fall of the former regime to financial and administrative corruption. Mass public rallies have been announced taking place in the Iraqi capital and in cities across the country on February 25. © AK News 2011

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110222-720032.html BAGHDAD (Dow Jones)-BP PLC (BP.LN) and its partner China National Petroleum Corp. will be the first companies to be paid back by the Iraqi government for developing Iraq's supergiant Rumaila oil field, a senior Iraqi oil official said. "The first company that we are going to pay back costs and remuneration fees to will be BP," Abdul Mahdy al-Ameedi, head of the Iraqi oil ministry's petroleum contracts and licensing directorate, told Dow Jones Newswires. Ameedi said payment to BP is expected to start either in March or April. He didn't provide further details. Iraq signed over the last 14 months some 12 deals to develop one of the country's vast oil fields. According to the terms of the service contracts Iraq signed with the firms, Baghdad has to start paying back the costs of developing these fields and remuneration fees when they achieve a 10% increase in production. BP said last month that it had raised production at Rumaila by more than 10% above the initial level of 1.066 million barrels a day, but Ameedi said in a previous interview with Dow Jones Newswires that Rumaila is now producing almost 20% more oil than before, or 1.275 million barrels a day. For every extra barrel of oil production BP and CNPC squeeze out of the field above the 10% milestone, they will receive a payment of $2. They would be also paid back costs for developing the field, which holds some 17 billion barrels oil reserves. BP had said that it alone would invest some $15 billion in the project across the course of the 20-year contract. Independent oil industry sources had said that BP and its partner would make up to 15% profit from total revenues of the Rumaila oil field. Companies such as Eni SpA (E), Italy's largest oil company in terms of reserves, along with Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OXY) and Korea Gas Group (036460.SE), known as Kogas, would be also paid back this year as they have already met the 10% increase from the giant Zubair oil field, which has estimated proven reserves of 6.5 billion barrels. -By Hassan Hafidh, Dow Jones Newswires; +962 799 831 831; hassan.hafidh@dowjones.com

They have already posted an Currency Auction for today.

http://www.cbi.iq/index.php?pid=CurrencyAuctions Auctions are up but no rate yet. The latest daily currency auction was held in the Central Bank of Iraq on the 22-FEB-2011. The results were as follows: Details Notes Number of banks 20 Auction price selling dinar / US$ 1170 Auction price buying dinar / US$ ----- Amount sold at auction price (US$) 165,534,000 Amount purchased at Auction price (US$) ----- Total offers for buying (US$) 165,534,000 Total offers for selling (US$) -----

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110220005006/en/Research-Markets-Latest-Iraq-Oil-Gas-Report February 21, 2011 12:30 AM Eastern Time Research and Markets: Latest Iraq Oil and Gas Report - Q1 2011 Edition DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/9860de/iraq_oil_and_gas_r) has announced the addition of the "Iraq Oil and Gas Report Q1 2011" report to their offering. “Iraq Oil and Gas Report Q1 2011” .The Iraq Oil and Gas Report provides industry professionals and strategists, corporate analysts, oil and gas associations, government departments and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on Iraq's oil and gas industry. BMI forecasts that Iraq will account for 10.27% of Middle East (ME) regional oil demand by 2015, while providing 11.56% of supply. Middle East regional oil use of 4.98mn b/d in 2001 will rise to an estimated 7.40mn barrels per day (b/d) in 2010. It should average 7.70mn b/d in 2011 and then rise to around 8.70mn b/d by 2015. Regional oil production was 22.83mn b/d in 2001 and will average an estimated 24.96mn b/d in 2010. After an estimated 25.22mn b/d in 2011, it is set to rise to 27.24mn b/d by 2015. Oil exports are growing steadily, because demand growth is lagging the pace of supply expansion. In 2001,the region was exporting an average of 17.85mn b/d. This total will ease to an estimated 17.55mn b/d in 2010 and is forecast to reach 18.54mn b/d by 2015. Iraq has the greatest export growth potential, followed by Qatar. In terms of natural gas, the region will consume an estimated 391bn cubic metres (bcm) in 2010, with demand of 483bcm targeted for 2015, representing 23.7% growth. Production of an estimated 467bcm in2010 should reach 614bcm in 2015 (+31.4%), which implies net exports rising to 130bcm by the end of the period. In 2010, Iraq will consume an estimated 1.28% of the regions gas, with its market share forecast at 2.38% by 2015. It will contribute 1.07% to estimated 2010 regional gas production and by 2015 could account for 2.93% of supply. For 2010 as a whole, we assume an average OPEC basket price of US$77.00/bbl (+26.5% y-o-y). The 2010 US WTI price is now put at US$79.16/bbl. BMI is assuming an OPEC basket price of US$80.00/bbl in 2011, with WTI averaging US$82.25, Brent at US$82.46/bbl, Urals delivering around US$81.21 and the Dubai average being US$80.74/bbl. Our central assumption for 2012 is an OPEC price averaging US$85.00/bbl, delivering WTI at approximately US$87.40 and Brent at US$87.60/bbl. From 2013 onwards, we are using an average OPEC price of US$90.00/bbl. For the whole of 2010, the BMI assumption for the global gasoline price is an average of US$87.49/bbl, representing a y-o-y rise of 24.7%. The global gas/oil forecast is for an average price of US$88.00/bbl, probably peaking in December 2010 at more than US$95/bbl. The full-year outturn represents a 27.6% increase from the 2009 level. For 2010, the annual jet price level is forecast to be US$89.500/bbl. This compares with US$70.66/bbl in 2009. The 2010 average naphtha price is put by BMI at US$77.65/bbl,up almost 31% from the previous years level. BMI is assuming that Iraqi real GDP will rise 3.4% in 2010, and we are forecasting average annual growth of 5.7% in 2010-2015. We expect estimated oil demand of 700,000b/d in 2010 to rise to 893,000b/d in 2015, depending on investment in infrastructure and the development of domestic production. International oil companies (IOCs) have signed production sharing agreements (PSAs) with the state, which should help accelerate the growth in oil output. Based on the efforts of national oil industry bodies, we are forecasting average oil production of 2.51mn b/d in 2010. September 2010 production was 2.52mn b/d, with 2.02mn b/d of exports. Further field reactivation work and the initial IOC efforts point to output of an estimated 3.15mn b/d in 2015. The government has much more ambitious targets, aiming for 0.5mn b/d annual output expansion and a long-term goal of 6.0mn b/d. However, there are major risks involving attacks on oil installations, Iraq's OPEC entitlement and the success of new energy policy in stimulating IOC investment. Between 2010 and 2020, we are forecasting an increase in Iraqi oil production of 65.7%, with crude volumes rising steadily to 4.15mn b/d by the end of the 10-year forecast period. Oil consumption between 2010 and 2020 is set to increase by 62.9%, with growth slowing to an assumed 5.0% per annum towards the end of the period and the country using 1.14mn b/d by 2020. Gas production is expected to climb to 42bcm by the end of the period. With 2010-2020 demand growth of 281%, export potential should rise to 23bcm by 2020. Details of the BMI 10-year forecasts can be found in the appendix to this report. Iraq ranks fourth, just ahead of Iran and Bahrain, in BMIs composite Business Environment ratings (BERs) table, which combines upstream and downstream scores. It now occupies a respectable third place in BMIs updated upstream Business Environment ratings, but lags Qatar and the UAE by five points and three points respectively. The country's score benefits from exceptional oil and gas output growth potential, a substantial hydrocarbons reserves base and the regions highest reserves-to-production ratio (RPR). Current government control of the upstream industry and a high level of country-specific risk prevent Iraq from achieving a better overall score. Iraq is back at the bottom of the league table in BMIs downstream Business Environment ratings, with a few high scores but further near-term progress up the rankings unlikely. It is ranked just behind Kuwait and Oman, in spite of a reasonable showing in terms of oil demand, oil and gas demand growth and likely refining capacity expansion.

Usually it does not update till 3 to 4am. It is posted now. The latest daily currency auction was held in the Central Bank of Iraq on the 21-FEB-2011. The results were as follows: Details Notes Number of banks 17 Auction price selling dinar / US$ 1170 Auction price buying dinar / US$ ----- Amount sold at auction price (US$) 201,472,000 Amount purchased at Auction price (US$) ----- Total offers for buying (US$) 201,472,000 Total offers for selling (US$) ----- http://www.cbi.iq/index.php?pid=CurrencyAuctions

It did not specify what currency! How about 1 billion Dong?

Hey Junior Member I have a username! I am Republican and a AFSCME member. What legislator has not voted themselves a pay raise? Do you start sentences with And?

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker will be voting himself a pay raise next!

Friday, February 18, 2011 13:09 GMT Iraqi Parliament Speaker and his deputies convened with heads of political parties and the financial committee to settle the issue of Iraq’s 2011 budget, a parliamentary source told Alsumaria News. The Parliament will submit the general budget for vote on Sunday. Parliament Speaker Ousama Al Nujaifi and his two deputies Qosay Al Suhail and Aref Tayfour held a meeting on Friday morning with heads of political parties in Parliament and the financial committee to decide on Iraq’s 2011 general budget. http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Iraq-News/1-60532-Iraq-Parliament-prepares-to-vote-on-budget.html

First Mid-Illinois Bank & Trust in IL and Capital One Bank in TX

China funded it. In case we don't pay up!

Is it posted anywhere how to come up with a revalue amount?