Cursor International executes projects and collaboration activities across several industries.
By Yerevan Saeed for Al Jazeera. Any opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.
Coronavirus could cause US to lose Iraqi Kurdish region to China
Since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, China has been working to expand its influence over the KRG through medical aid.
By Mustafa Saadoun for Al Monitor. Any opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.
Virus survivors rake in cash for plasma on Iraq’s black market
For five days, Qusay al-Zaidi searched for a recovered coronavirus patient to give him plasma for use in the treatment of his relatives who had contracted the virus. He expected to get it from a volunteer free of charge, but this was not the case.
“The recovered patient asked for $1,500 per liter and refused to negotiate the price,” he told Al-Monitor.
Iraq Business News would like to recommend an excellent and informative webinar from the Iraq Britain Business Council (IBBC)‘s Young Executives Network (YEN), featuring a discussion with Ali Al-Saffar, the Middle East and North Africa Program Manager at the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris.
Ali shared his insights on “The importance of oil and gas to Iraq’s economy and the opportunities for and challenges to diversification“.
Also on the panel were Mr Sammy Sharifi, Co-Chair of IBBC YEN, and Ms Layla Al-Hassani of BP and Co-Chair of IBBC YEN.
Weatherford International has announced that it has signed an 18-month contract with the Iraqi Drilling Company (IDC) to provide services and project management for the drilling and completion of twenty wells in the Al-Nasiriyah field in the Dhi Qar province in southern Iraq.
Basim M. Khudair, General Director for IDC, said:
“Signing this contract between IDC and Weatherford is a great accomplishment for both parties. It sets the right ground for our mutual and constructive joint cooperation in the future.”
IDC will provide rigs, civil works and drilling services; Weatherford will provide project management and all other associated services. The operation will be performed with four rigs provided by IDC.
Frederico Justus, President, International Operations, Weatherford, noted:
“This joint operation with IDC is an honor for Weatherford. Together, IDC and Weatherford will work as one team, providing project management solutions that deliver efficient and effective execution of the contract.”
IDC is a leading Iraqi service company focusing on rig services and is a key player in the nationalization program for the country’s oil and gas sector.
(Source: Weatherford)
Further to the recent announcement that Garrett Soden was to be re-appointed to the Board of Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) as a Non-Independent Non-Executive Director representing funds managed by Lansdowne Partners Austria GmbH, the Company is pleased to confirm that the formal appointment process has now been completed and as such welcomes Mr Soden back to the Board of Gulf Keystone.
Garrett Soden has extensive experience as a senior executive and board member of various public companies in the natural resources sector. He is currently President and CEO of Africa Energy Corp., a Canadian oil and gas exploration company focused on South Africa, and is also a Non-Executive Director of Etrion Corporation, Noble Group Holdings Limited and Panoro Energy ASA. Mr Soden has undertaken to conform to UK corporate governance standards in respect of external appointments.
Directorships held within the past five years:
Phoenix Global Resources plc
Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd
Petropavlovsk plc
PA Resources AB
RusForest AB
(Source: GKP)
By John Lee.
The UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has secured convictions against two former oil executives who conspired to give corrupt payments to secure contracts in Iraq.
A jury at Southwark Crown Court found Ziad Akle guilty on two counts and Stephen Whiteley guilty on one count of conspiracy to give corrupt payments. The convictions follow the guilty pleas of co-conspirator Basil Al Jarah who, in July 2019, admitted five offences of conspiracy to give corrupt payments.
In the years of reconstruction following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the three men conspired with others to pay bribes to public officials at the Iraqi South Oil Company (SOC) and, and in Basil Al Jarah’s case the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, to secure oil contracts for Unaoil and its clients.
The post-occupation Iraqi government had commissioned the South Oil Company to run projects as part of a “Master Plan” to rebuild Iraq’s oil industry and thereby expand the country’s oil export capacity. This included the installation of offshore mooring buoys and new oil pipelines.
To ensure Unaoil benefitted from these state-run projects, the defendants and co-conspirators conspired to bribe public officials at the South Oil Company and Ministry of Oil to secure contracts for Unaoil and its clients SBM Offshore. Basil Al Jarah also conspired to bribe public officials at the South Oil Company and the Ministry of Oil to secure contracts for Unaoil and its client Leighton Offshore.
Basil Al Jarah admitted to paying bribes totalling over $6million to secure contracts worth $800m for the supply of oil pipelines and offshore mooring buoys. Ziad Akle and Stephen Whiteley were found guilty of paying over $500,000 in bribes to secure the $55m contract for the offshore mooring buoys.
SFO Director Lisa Osofsky said:
“These men dishonestly and corruptly took advantage of a government reeling from dictatorship and occupation, and trying to reconstruct a war-torn state. They abused the system to cut out competitors and line their own pockets.
“It is our mission to pursue and bring to justice those who use criminal means to weaken the integrity of business.“
The SFO would like to thank the Australian Federal Police, the French Parquet National Financier, the Police Judiciaires of the Principality of Monaco, the Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD) of the Netherlands, the United States Department of Justice, Greater Manchester Police, the Metropolitan Police, the National Crime Agency and West Mercia Constabulary for their valuable assistance in this case.
The men are due to be sentenced on 22 and 23 July 2020.
(Source: UK SFO)
The Iraqi Children Foundation (ICF), the United States’ largest charity devoted exclusively to advocacy and support for Iraq’s children, premiered today a fresh, impactful design and message for the cause.
ICF Board Chairman Mohammed Khudairi explained:
“Today, we reintroduce ourselves to Americans and the international community with a fresh voice. For over a decade, ICF has intervened with love and hope in the lives of children who are vulnerable to abuse, neglect, and exploitation by criminals, traffickers, and extremists.
“We have invested in life-changing education, legal protection, psychosocial services, nutrition, and other support for the most marginalized children: orphans, street kids, children displaced by war, child laborers, and disabled kids. We are now standing with them in the face of new dangers from COVID-19.“
Liz McRae, Executive Director, said:
“We started this process in early 2020 and poured our hearts and souls into creating a new image that would accurately depict who we are at our core, as an organization. As COVID-19 began to dramatically impact the world and our work, we doubled down on our efforts to refocus on our organization and the way we do things.
“Our mission and vision are strong, and we recognized the importance of the right tools to communicate messages driving real and meaningful change. We are committed to ‘thinking big’ to address the critical need for orphans and street children in Iraq, now more than ever.“
ICF’s voice for Iraq’s children is reflected in the visual identity the organization debuted today. It reflects a modern, bright, optimistic and inclusive outlook, focused on the deepest needs of children to belong to their family, community, and nation.
This idea is presented in the graphic pattern, with four elements surrounding the map of Iraq: the sunshine symbolizing hope, growth in the form of the date palm leaf and fruit of Iraq, and water marking the Euphrates and Tigris rivers which represent the historic position of Iraq as the seat of civilization.
The tagline – Protect. Nurture. Empower. – codifies ICF’s core mission to ensure all children are safe, have a voice, and are empowered to reach their full potential.
* Cuneiform inscriptions based on the ancient writing systems of Mesopotamia.
That mission – to protect, nurture, and empower – is manifested in ICF’s projects in recent years, including a “Street Lawyers” project providing legal protection and aid to more than 1,200 children and securing legal identity documents needed for school and nutrition and other benefits for 1,300 children.
Social services – including services for mental health, ending abuse, stopping child labor, and medical care – have been delivered to 1,006 children. Two child-friendly and colorful “Hope Buses” in a desperately poor neighborhood provide tutoring and nutritious meals to empower an average of 100 orphans and street children each school day.
Some of these initiatives have been seriously impacted by COVID-19 related curfews in Baghdad and other obstacles to service operations.
ICF is a non-partisan, non-sectarian tax-exempt 501(c)(3) charity with top Platinum status on Guidestar. It is also listed on the U.S. government’s workplace giving platform, the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC #95191). Board and Advisor leadership includes veterans, former Ambassadors, top U.S. child welfare experts, Iraqi-American professionals, and business executives. ICF initiatives in Iraq are executed with competent, trusted Iraqi NGO partners who know local communities and urgent needs best. ICF relies on both private and corporate donations to make this work possible.
Learn more about our work and donate at www.iraqichildren.org, or contact ICF Executive Director Elizabeth (Liz) McRae at liz@iraqichildren.org
(Source: ICF)
By Ahmed Mousa Jiyad.
Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.
Transparency in Iraq petroleum sector – More symbolic formality than impacting effectiveness
The petroleum sector is the only sector of the Iraqi economy that has been subject to a formal, articulated, transparency regime for almost a decade, as result of the new emerging international entity, the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI).
As totally new concept in Iraqi governance mindset, transparency was introduced post 2003 invasion and Iraq went through distinct phases in its association with EITI from application in 2009 as candidate to a compliant country by end 2012 to suspension in late 2017, and since then Iraq works hard to re-instate its compliancy status.
This article discusses and assesses Iraq experience with transparency and the path it followed in its implementation of this new concept for prudent management of its finite natural resources of petroleum. Specifically, what prompted or compelled Iraq to adopt EITI norms; what measures it had taken to gain the compliant status; why that status was suspended; what has Iraq to do if it wants to regain that status and, above all, what are the outcomes and how sustainable are they.
Though Iraq EITI (IEITI) experience is characterized as bureaucratic formality and symbolic, the article would argue that good, comprehensive and regular reporting on transparency enhances transparency and contributes to good governance in the petroleum sector. Hence, the article argues further, that what is needed is how to transform IEITI into real, effective and impacting change agency.
Click here to download the full report in pdf format.
Mr Jiyad is an independent development consultant, scholar and Associate with the former Centre for Global Energy Studies (CGES), London. He was formerly a senior economist with the Iraq National Oil Company and Iraq’s Ministry of Oil, Chief Expert for the Council of Ministers, Director at the Ministry of Trade, and International Specialist with UN organizations in Uganda, Sudan and Jordan. He is now based in Norway (Email: mou-jiya(at)online.no, Skype ID: Ahmed Mousa Jiyad). Read more of Mr Jiyad’s biography here.
By John Lee.
The Cabinet held its regular meeting in Baghdad on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi.
At the start of the meeting, the Prime Minister extended his condolences and paid tribute to Dr. Hisham Al-Hashimi who was assassinated by a group of armed outlaws.
The Prime Minister said that the perpetrators of this crime will be pursued and brought to justice, as will those who have spilled the blood of other Iraqis.
The Prime Minister made it clear that he will not allow Iraq to be held to ransom by gangs, and that the government is determined to reassert the authority of the state and the rule of law.
The Prime Minister said that this government came into office in very challenging circumstances, and it will take the necessary action to fulfill the aspirations of Iraqis.
The Cabinet then received a briefing from the Minister of Health on the latest developments in relation to Covid-19, and the ongoing efforts to combat the pandemic.
Following discussions, the Cabinet decided to:
The Cabinet also discussed other policies and draft laws and issued several directives.
(Source: Govt of Iraq)
By John Lee.
The director of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has presented his company’s plans for the development of the Bazergan [Buzurgan] oil field in Maysan to Iraq’s Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar.
In a separate meeting on Wednesday, the Minister also received the CEO of Lukoil in Iraq, Igor Zubarev, who gave a summary of the company’s activities and plans in Iraq.
(Source: Ministry of Oil)