Parliamentary Finance: Iraq is still in the stage of danger .. We sell oil for 27 dollars

[6ly410]

 

 

 

03/14/2020 20:17

Parliamentary Finance: Iraq is still in the stage of danger .. We sell oil for 27 dollars

http://almasalah.com/ar/news/189368/المالية-النيابية-العراق-مازال-في-مرحلة-الخطر-نبيع-النفط-بـ27-دولارا

 

Baghdad / Obelisk: Member of Parliamentary Finance Committee, Ahmed Hama Rashid, confirmed on Saturday, 14 March 2020, that Iraq is still in the red zone of danger due to low oil prices, calling for a speedy recovery.

Rashid said in a statement reported to the obelisk, today the price of oil has increased by about 1.50 dollars and fifty cents, and the sale of Brent is at 34.72 dollars, which means that Iraq is selling oil at less than 7 dollars compared to Brent, or 27.72 dollars.

He added: If we hit the full volume of the exported oil 3 million and 800 thousand barrels, then we will get 32 trillion and 26 billion dinars, so we are still in the red zone of danger, and therefore we must remedy it quickly.

Obelisk 

 

 

 

Edited March 15, 2020 by 6ly410

[horsesoldier]

Danger Will Robinson, DANGER ! ! ! 

[Theseus]

Basra Light Crude (AKA Iraq Light Crude) is currently selling for 43.25 while Brent Crude is selling for 32.75. On Mar 9 2020 Basra crude sold for 32.68 (the lowest price in quite awhile) while on the same date Brent Crude sold for 34.68. Just not seeing what this article is complaining about. If anything Basra Light is selling for more than Brent Crude on Mar 15. 

[WheresmyRV?]

Them guys aren't happy unless they are in some sort of any crisis.  They feed off of that.

[6ly410]

Finance Committee: Talking about the size of the budget deficit is premature

  http://economy-news.net/content.php?id=19297
 money and business
Economy News _ Baghdad

The Parliamentary Finance Committee confirmed on Sunday that talking about the size of the budget deficit is premature.
Committee member Ahmed Hama Rashid said in a press statement seen by Al-Iqtisad News, "Talking about the size of the budget deficit is premature and misplaced, given that the budget was not legislated, and we are also preparing for the budget of 2021," noting that " The current government is to conduct business and it is not entitled to prepare the budget according to Article 41 of the bylaw, and when forming the government we may reach the month of May of the current year.
He added, "According to the Financial Management Law, in the middle of May, it is necessary to start preparing for the budget for the next year, and therefore talking about the budget deficit is something that has no place in the actual situation on the ground."
Rashid said, "The government has already started, since the first month of this year, to spend 12/1 of the budget for operating expenses and salaries, and this matter is not related to oil prices or budget deficits, given that we have no loss or profit, because what is spent is related to the numbers in a general budget." 2019 ".
Rashid stressed, "The salaries of employees are safe even if the oil prices drop to less than thirty dollars, and it cannot be affected, because it depends on the ratio of one to 12 of last year's budget."

Number of views 49 Date added 15/03/2020

[6ly410]

Coronavirus and oil price crash could plunge Iraq deeper into crisis

5 hours ago

 

 

Damaged by wars recent and past, Mosul remains in ruins as Iraqi lawmakers fail to approve a budget. File photo: Zail al-Obeidy / AFP

Tags: Coronavirus oil Iraqi parliament

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/corona-oil-iraq-economy-crisis

Coronavirus has already ground daily life in Iraq to a halt — but disarray in Baghdad threatens to worsen the economic forecast amidst a price war that continues pinching global oil markets.

Oil prices globally plummeted by nearly half in the past week, with crude prices dipping as low as $35 a barrel as a result of a standoff between rivals Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Dependent on oil coffers to fund its federal budget, analysts say that Iraq’s political deadlock stands in the way of Iraq getting through tough economic waters ahead.

Already three months into the year, Parliament has yet to decide on a budget plan for 2020 – and budget cuts necessitated by the plummeting price of oil could threaten to turn the annual budget tango into an exercise in futility.

“If the current crisis of oil continues, the Iraqi parliament will be unable to approve the 2020 budget plan,” Haitham al-Jiboury, the head of the Iraqi parliament’s finance committee told Rudaw English in a telephone interview.

Iraq’s 2019 plan hinged on exporting 3.88 million barrels per day at a price of $56 per barrel to fund the 133 trillion dinars ($111 billion USD) federal budget.

Jiboury told Rudaw English that if prices stabilize, he foresees a deficit of around 50 trillion dinars ($42 billion USD) – however, if prices remain this low, that deficit could rise to more than IQD 100 trillion.

The price crisis began with a dispute between Saudi Arabia and Russia. For years, the oil giants coordinated their production benchmarks through a deal known as OPEC+. As global demand has shrunk due to the coronavirus outbreak, Saudi Arabia proposed cutting production to meet the reduced demand.

Russian companies are struggling under US sanctions to find buyers for its oil on the global market, and refused to go ahead with the Saudi proposal to cut its production.

Saudi Arabia then responded by raising the stakes, flooding the market with low-priced oil. Crude prices plummeted to $35/barrel — according to Bloomberg, the biggest one-day drop since the 1991 US-led invasion of Iraq, codenamed Operation Desert Storm.

Source: Boursorama, graphic by AFP

 

Oil revenues account for roughly 90 percent of Iraq’s yearly budget, according to data from the UK-based Iraq Energy Institute.

Despite resigning in December, Adil Abdul-Mahdi still serves as interim prime minister amid popular protests that have raged in Iraq’s southern and central provinces since October 2019, demanding the ouster of political elites and an overhaul of the political system.

“The current Iraqi government is a caretaker cabinet, therefore it cannot send any budget plan to the parliament, and a new cabinet is responsible to make that happen,” says Ahmed Haji Rashid, a Kurdish lawmaker who sits in the finance committee. 

However, Rashid is even less optimistic than al-Jiboury. Now in his tenth year as a member of Iraq’s Council of Representatives, he believes it likely that the parliament may drag its feet well into 2020 without approving a budget.

Every passing year sees a tedious and prolonged debate over Baghdad’s federal budget, and with each passing week mounting speculation on the disaster that could unfold if an agreement can’t be reached. That only happened once – in 2014, when a budget deal couldn’t be reached due to low oil prices.

If Saudi Arabia and Russia failed to reach an agreement by this summer, Iraq could find itself in the “worst situation in years,” Baghdad-based geopolitical analyst Noam Raydan warns.

“Iraq has been promising to diversify its economy and be less dependent on oil for years, but nothing has changed so far — that is why the current crises are still affecting Iraq’s economy,” Raydan added.

Raydan believes that regional instability and the low price of oil – combined with coronavirus threats and protests ongoing for months may make reaching an agreement on this year’s budget an impossibility.

“It is too early to talk about a budget deficiency,” Iraq’s Oil Ministry spokesperson Assim Jihad told Rudaw English on Wednesday. “This crisis will pass and oil prices will change positively for Iraq,” Jihad said.