Plus:
*A needed debrief of the Shell gas project
*Iraq oil exports drop
*U.S. loses $13 billion in Iraq reconstruction funds
*KRG inks power deal, puts wind and hydro to tender
*Night lights in Baghdad neighborhood
*Parliament Elections: Sunni tribal elders, Moqtada Sadr to run
*Iraq Press Roundup
*Much more

Hits and Misses of Shell-Iraq gas project

The Shell-Iraq gas deal is not a production sharing contract – heck, it’s not even a deal. It’s a signing of an agreement that the two sides will conduct due
diligence and then perhaps make a deal to set up a joint venture
company between the international oil giant and Iraq’s South Gas Co., as Ben Lando reports for United Press International. (NOTE: UPI requires registration to read stories now, though it remains free.)
There are plenty of news stories that mislabel the Shell
announcement as PSCs and other models. To be sure, however, there is
little in the way of transparency both of how we got to this stage, and
what’s to come in the future in terms of deal details.
Leila Fadel, McClatchy Newspapers’ Baghdad Bureau chief reports on another big move for shell: “Today I inaugurated the Baghdad
office,” said Linda Cook, an executive director with Royal Dutch Shell
PLC. “It’s a milestone for Shell.” Shell officials wouldn’t disclose
where the office is, but said the company would continue to expand its
presence in Iraq.

More Oil, Power and Reconstruction News

Iraq oil exports last month dropped to 1.75 million barrels per day, The Associated Press reports. Export totals are usually updated on the Oil Ministry website, though
July is the most recent month of export data. Iraq had been nearing a
steady 1.9 million bpd.
A former Iraqi official estimated yesterday that more than
$13 billion meant for reconstruction projects in Iraq was wasted or
stolen through elaborate fraud schemes, Dana Hedgpeth reports for The Washington Post. Salam Adhoob, a former chief investigator for Iraq’s Commission on
Public Integrity, was one of three Iraqi men who testified before the
Senate Democratic Policy Committee yesterday. Abbas S. Mehdi, a former
Iraqi official who held a cabinet-level post, told of widespread
corruption. And an Iraqi American who for five years has been a senior
adviser to Defense and State department officials in Iraq testified in
silhouette by video from an undisclosed location because, he said, he
feared for his safety. In a modified voice, he said Iraqi government
officials worked with al-Qaeda terrorists at the Baiji refinery to
steal oil to sell on the black market. Adhoob said some of the
investigations conducted by his agency and others uncovered “ghost
projects” that never existed or instances in which Iraqi and U.S.
contractors did poor-quality work. In one case, $24.4 million was spent
on an electricity project in Nineveh province but an oversight agency
found that it “existed only on paper.”
Iraq’s Kurdish government awarded U.S. company Symbion a power project deal intended to connect all three northern provinces to the power grid, UPI reports. The Kurdistan Regional Government’s Electricity Ministry will pay the
Washington, D.C.-based company $33 million for the 132 kilovolt
electrical transmission and distribution project that links Aqra, in
Dohuk province, to Khabat, in Erbil province. This is an extension of
the Aqra-Dohuk substation project. The company said in a statement that
when it’s completed, “the network through all KRG governorates will be
complete.”
Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government is looking to wind and hydropower to meet its electricity needs, UPI reports. The KRG Electricity Ministry wants wind farm feasibility studies in all
three of its northern Iraq provinces and three hydropower plant
feasibility studies. It announced the invitation to tender on its Web
site Tuesday, with an Oct. 20 deadline for bidders.
Jordan has received its first shipment of Iraqi crude oil under a deal that offers the kingdom 10,000 barrels per day with
preferential price terms, the energy minister said on Tuesday, Reuters reports.
The Iraqi Ministry of Planning’s Strategic Authority for Reconstruction approved projects of over $62 million, Voices of Iraq reports. The funds will be dedicated to food and dairy, veterinary and water projects.
In neighborhoods across northwest Baghdad, specifically Ghazaliyah, a new solar-powered lighting system is being placed along streets, in
neighborhoods and in popular areas to bring a bit of normalcy back to
these areas, allowing people to continue life after the sun goes down,a U.S. military publication reports. “The logic behind it was getting lights out on the streets at night,”
said Maj. Tom Nelson, engineering officer for the 2nd Brigade Combat
Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Multi-National Division –
Baghdad.
New violence on more peaceful Baghdad streets involve members of the Sunni Awakening, which could be a sign of bad things to come, Erica Goode reports for The New York Times.
Iraqi insurgents forced underground, but even in hiding, Al Qaeda in Iraq can carry out high-profile attacks and has infiltrated security forces, Tom A. Peter reports for The Christian Science Monitor.

Crucial Elections

The next round of Iraqi elections in 2009 will have a greater impact on the emerging Iraqi state and its identity than any other, the foreign minister said, UPI reports.
The Sunni tribal elders in the western Iraqi province of Anbar will form an electoral bloc to run in the provincial elections, a top official said, UPI reports.
Firebrand Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr announced Tuesday he will not run for political office under his own party, opting instead for an independent slate, UPI reports.
Iraq’s President Jalal Talabani who underwent a critical surgery in the United States a few weeks ago is slated to return to Baghdad soon but senior
government leaders are apparently in readiness should his health take a
turn for the worse and there is need for a replacement, Basil Adas reports for Gulf News.
The Kurdistan Regional Government announced it would provide refugees who have settled in the Kurdish territories of Iraq a monthly remuneration, UPI reports. Kurdish Minister of Extra-regional Affairs Mohammad Ihsan announced the
decision as part of an effort to help internally displaced refugees who
fled to northern Iraq, the KRG said in a press statement Monday.
Iraq’s largely autonomous northern Kurdistan region has passed a modified media law aimed at protecting journalists’ rights, abolishing jail terms for offences such as defamation, parliamentary deputies said, Shamal Aqrawi reports for Reuters. An earlier version of the law passed by parliament last December
carried tough sanctions for journalists including imprisonment, fines
of up to 10 million Iraqi dinar ($8,400) and the closure of
publications.
War News Radio: Bread and Butter Issues:
Explore the current food crises gripping Iraq. A talk about the
state of agriculture in Iraq and why food production is coming up
short. Chat with Robin Lodge from the World Food Program in Iraq. As
food prices rise around the globe, how and how much is Iraq affected?
Finally, three Iraqis from Kurdistan tell us about the day-to-day
problems they face when buying and selling food.
Read what Iraqis are reading: the Iraq Press Roundup by UPI’s Alaa Majeed.