Kurdistan Portal

Kurdistan: The Final Frontier For Oil? 

By Gary Kent, ekurd, 25.11.2011 

The recent inaugural Oil and Gas conference in Erbil, the capital of the largely autonomous Kurdistan region in Iraq, attracted 600 people including senior politicians and executives from across the world in what is likely to be a regular feature of the global energy scene.

The prestigious gathering conveyed growing business and political confidence in a place that was once a byword for poverty and oppression and an economic backwater.

The conference was set alight by news that the world’s biggest oil company ExxonMobil had decided to settle in the region.

It shouldn’t be surprising that this behemoth would want to do          

business in Kurdistan. After all, it is now widely seen as the final frontier for onshore oil and gas. Its energy reserves had been deliberately neglected by Saddam and it is only since what most people here call liberation in 2003 that the scale of its natural assets has been mapped.

The scale of often easily recoverable assets has come as a pleasant surprise. Experts estimate that it has reserves of 45 billion barrels of oil which could make it the world’s fourth largest producer and possibly as significant as Libya.

There are major gas reserves – possibly a century’s worth. Such energy assets make Kurdistan a potentially powerful strategic partner in ensuring energy supplies to Europe via Turkey with which the region’s relations have substantially improved, although there is much work to do in lifting the position of Kurds in Turkey.

And the Kurdistan region also has untapped potential in minerals such as phosphates, iron, copper and marble. Then there is agriculture and tourism in what is the safest part of Iraq, where there have been no attacks since 2007 and where there have been 200 terror-related deaths since 2003 compared to about 120,000 in the rest of Iraq in the same period.

Yet the Exxon decision is hugely controversial in Baghdad. The federal government maintains that the Kurds don’t have the legal right to conclude their own contracts without permission. The Kurds argue that their regulatory regime is consistent with the Iraqi constitution agreed by a popular vote in 2005.

However, Baghdad blacklists oil companies that operate in Kurdistan from the larger scale of work in the south. Both sides accept the need for external investment and expertise but differ on the terms.

The Kurds have been highly successful in concluding advantageous deals with over 40 smaller oil companies from 17 countries, including smaller British ones although they have recently been joined by the former BP Executive Tony Hayward, who was at the conference and whose Vallares company has now merged with a Turkish company.

The Kurdish minister for natural resources, Ashti Hawrami, himself a former oil man with North Sea experience, has also done very well in encouraging corporate social responsibility to build schools and other infrastructure.
The Exxon entree may encourage other oil majors. An open question is whether BP would emulate Exxon.

Groups such as the APPG on Kurdistan have long argued that the Kurdistan region is open for business and could be a gateway to the rest of Iraq as its security improves. My initial visit to Kurdistan five years ago was to meet trade unionists. They urged British investment with a Communist leader asking to ‘borrow your bourgeoisie’ as they didn’t have one. The ‘bourgeoisie’ is finally getting the point with a variety of small British companies going to Kurdistan to see for themselves. APPG Co-chair Meg Munn MP formally opened the recent large trade fair in Erbil together with the president and prime minister of the Kurdistan region.

But the Exxon dispute is not merely a technical one about contracts, but is potentially about the future of Iraq as currently constituted.

The Kurds did not voluntarily join Iraq nearly a century ago and were denied statehood with Kurds dispersed across Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. Successive Iraqi regimes repressed the Kurds who are often looked down on by Arab chauvinists. This led to decades of genocidal acts most notably at Halabja where 5,000 people were killed by weapons of mass destruction on one day in 1988. Some 180,000 people were killed overall and thousands of villages were destroyed. Farmers were shot on sight, wells were poisoned and people forced into urban concentration camps as part of a systematic effort to eliminate the Kurds.

The Iraqi Kurds say they have exercised their right to self determination by opting to stay in Iraq but on condition that it is democratic and federal with substantial autonomy for the region. If Baghdad reverts to centralised dictatorship all bets are off the table.

They have refused to wait for Baghdad to get its act together. The Kurdistan prime minister, Barham Salih, who himself studied in exile at Cardiff and Liverpool,www.ekurd.net told the conference that the Kurds will never again be held hostage to the whims of bureaucrats in Baghdad. He pointed out that if they had conformed to the sluggish Baghdad timetable there would still be just two hours of electricity a day compared to the current twenty in the region.
This is the backdrop to the long running dispute over contracts and the need for an overarching hydrocarbons law.

The Exxon decision could force the pace and change the balance in favour of the Kurds and may have Baghdad over a barrel so to speak. Exxon’s operations in the south are critical to Baghdad’s plans to get the oil flowing and finance essential services such as electricity supply which is about four hours a day. Baghdad could expel Exxon but probably after months of legal wrangling. It seems highly improbable that the world’s biggest oil company would have walked into this blindly. The company is huge and its wealth dwarfs that of Iraq. The best hope is that the two energy ministers ignore the dinosaurs and agree a pan-Iraq law that benefits both sides.

It would be better that such an accommodation were reached soon as the impending withdrawal of American troops could destabilise Iraq. It would also be in line with the agreements brokered by the Kurdish president which facilitated the formation of a coalition government in Baghdad after nearly a year of stasis.

An accord would then provide the needed stability for the country’s vast natural resources to be exploited and to accelerate their use of the revenues to increase basic services and further isolate extremists.

Saddam used some of the country’s vast natural wealth to benefit his narrow support base, repress everyone else and finance an aggressive foreign policy.
Energy assets can now finance the good life without succumbing to the soulless opulence and a seething underclass of other countries in the Middle East. There have been huge advances for ordinary Iraqi Kurds with average per capita income increasing from $375 to $5,500 in the last decade and there is an annual growth rate of 12 per cent. The region could soon become a net contributor to the Iraqi economy.

On my seven visits since 2006 I have seen a constant process of change with high-end hotels and malls but there is still much to do to provide more homes, hospitals, waste water and other facilities.

In common with other Middle East countries, half the population is under 25. Political leaders and friends abroad can highlight tremendous achievements by the Kurdish liberation movement but for most people this is a struggle conducted by their grandfathers and doesn’t entirely answer their needs now.

The Kurdish leadership has acquired increasing legitimacy by voluntarily embracing democracy and seeking to make the transition from a top-down and state dominated economy to a more open one with independent institutions and a larger private sector.

They actively seek external advice which makes them more vulnerable to criticism over issues such as rights for women, the media, prisons and the like. The need for change is acknowledged. The region is also lucky in having an opposition which can clarify issues. External political and policy knowledge-sharing can help develop a more competent political class. Remember that until recently the priority of politicians has been survival in a massively hostile environment.

The Kurds have a deep affection for the British with whom they have a chequered history but one that has been compensated for by the actions of John Major and Tony Blair. Our education standards, the quality of our goods and our politics are admired. After some initial nervousness about dealing with Kurdistan British ministers and companies now see that they can play a major and positive role.

There are also growing cultural links. The inaugural British Film Festival in Erbil, although the city has no cinema as yet, opens this week. It has been organised by the British consulate-general, Bankside Films and the Kurdistan regional government. Films on show include those with strong female role models (The Queen, Pride and Prejudice, Made in Dagenham), tackle social stereotypes (Billy Elliot) or discuss the Holocaust (The Boy in Striped Pajamas).

The UK’s National Film and Television School is organising workshops for young Kurdish filmmakers wanting to tell their stories which can help develop the nascent local filmmaking community and encourage films about the blossoming of the Kurdistan region after decades of dictatorship, genocide and isolation.

The Oil and Gas gathering highlighted the potential of the Kurdistan region and Iraq to lift the standards of millions of people and for Iraq as a whole to regain its rightful place as a wealthy, just, democratic and influential country in the Middle East. Oil and gas could become a blessing rather than the curse it has been in the past. And Britain is being asked to play a positive role too.

Gary Kent is Director of Labour Friends of Iraq. He has visited the country five times in the last three years and is an honorary member of the Iraqi Trade Union Movement. Gary has been a member of the Labour Party since 1976 and has worked in Parliament since 1987.

Iraq PM was informed of Exxon deal: Kurdistan president Massoud Barzani ‎

ekurd.net - 24.12.2011 

DUHOK, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — The leader of Iraqi Kurdistan said Friday that a contract the autonomous region signed with US energy giant ExxonMobil was constitutional and claimed Iraq's premier had initially given his assent.

On October 18, Kurdish authorities inked a deal with ExxonMobil for it to explore six areas in Kurdistan, but Baghdad regards as invalid any contracts not signed with the central government.

"We sent a letter to (Prime Minister) Mr Nuri al-Maliki to inform him of the matter, and we informed him that we will tell him all the developments, and he did not object," Kurdish president Massoud Barzani said at a speech in the northern city of Dohuk.

"We sent him a letter to inform him of the details when it came time to sign the contract, and he said, 'good', but in the end, they protested and said it was not in accordance with the constitution."

Barzani also insisted that the contract complied with Iraq's constitution.

Maliki told AFP on December 15 that ExxonMobil had promised to reconsider the exploration deal, but did not elaborate.

The Kurdistan contract potentially puts an Exxon contract with the Iraqi government in jeopardy.

In January 2010,www.ekurd.net Iraq's oil ministry completed a deal with ExxonMobil and Anglo-Dutch giant Shell to develop production at West Qurna-1, which with reserves of about 8.5 billion barrels is the country's second-biggest field.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/25/iraq-kurds-oil-idUSL5E8CP1W320120125


siehst du frei, wann konnte der irak die kurden je stoppen?

Die positiven Nachrichten häufen sich. Das war die erste Bestätigung seitens Exxon.

Eine informative Website über den Irak mit recht vielen Beiträgen zu Sürdkurdistan ist WP-Irak.de




weiter: „Ich habe hier noch was zu erledigen“




weiter: Alles im Fluss




weiter: Masterplan Müll

Joghurt-Revolution in den USA dank Kurden



Anders als in Europa und im Orient ist der Joughurtkonsum in den USA eher gering. Doch seit kurzem gibt es in den vereinigten Staaten einen Joghurtboom, verantwortlich dafür ist eine Firma namens CHOBANI, die kürzlich von einem Kurden gegründet wurde.
Hamdi Ulukaya, in einem Dorf in Erzincan geboren und in der Türkei aufgewachsen, ging mit 25 in die USA und entdeckte allmählich diese Marktlücke. In den USA gilt er indes zu den erfolgreichsten Geschäftsleuten unter 40 und wird von forbes als Steve Jobs des Joghurt bezeichnet.
Hamdi Ulukaya sponsert unter anderem das Kurdische Festival in den USA.




The $700 Million Yogurt Startup

In a scant four years, Hamdi Ulukaya has built something that even Silicon Valley types should covet: a $700 million business that’s profitable, dominant and growing at a furious clip.

Even more incredible: Ulukaya makes yogurt.  YOGURT. The stuff comprised of milk and culture.  This is the ancient food that must be produced, packaged and shipped to grocery store chains who, if they feel like stocking their shelves, finally disseminate it to consumers.  It’s perishable (like software rot, but worse).  And the yogurt market is competitive, stocked with old stalwarts such as Yoplait, Dannon and Fage, the king of Greek yogurt before Ulukaya showed up.

Ulukaya, in short, is the Steve Jobs of yogurt.  That makes Chobani, of course, the Apple of Greek yogurt.

Ulukaya got Chobani got off the ground in 2007 with the help of an SBA loan. Between then and now, Chobani became the largest yogurt maker in America.  It started with Ulukaya winning over upstate New York shops.   Then came regional chains, then New England, then national coverage.  Chobani became one of the primary engines in the great American discovery of Greek yogurt.  Ulukaya could barely keep up with demand.  Sometimes he couldn’t.  His yogurt plant in New Berlin, NY used to see one milk truck a day.  Now it sees 75.

Zero to $700 million in four years.  That’s a story that Silicon Valley has only seen a few times.  And Silicon Valley scales.  Yogurt doesn’t.  Well, not easily, anyhow.

Groupon, the fastest growing company ever, got to $700 million faster, but, as any snarky tech pundit will tell you, the Chicago deals site isn’t yet operating in the black.  Chobani, by most indications and according to Ulukaya, is firmly profitable.  Chobani has taken no investor money, instead building on cash flow and conventional bank loans.  Making yogurt at this scale makes the production of software look easy.  Don’t think so?  Would you like to try your hand scaling up a base software product that already had a small but faithful legion of users? Or would you rather try and grow a popular boutique dairy into a national powerhouse, negotiating the whims of retail chains, consumers and dairy farmers?  Do you want to figure out how to deal with 3 million pounds of milk a day?   Option A, please.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/christophersteiner/2011/09/08/the-700-million-yogurt-startup/