American Contractor

In the beginning of August, there was a major rift within PM Maliki newly appointed Ministries by the same people that had voted and appointed them into there cabinet posts. A vote of no confidence was attained against five ministries which very soon will be replaced.

After the last elections it took 5 months to appoint the cabinet members in the newly elected government, I hope it don’t take another 5 months to appoint the new ministries.

I hope the Ministry of Finance is not one of the five ministries and he is able to implement is new plan shortly.

Posted by American Contractor at 7:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Just this week a Warka bank branch in Erbil, Iraq was the victim of another Bank robbery, however in this case the Iraqi Police were close by and arrested the three robbers. I like this because for one it shows that maybe Warka Bank is increasing there security and looking out for the depositors/investors or the Iraqi police just happened to be in the area and arrested the robbers in the act.

I am not sure how it went and I am glad with all the Americans funneling money to Warka that they didn’t suffer another lost like they did a month ago with the other robbery of $800,000 usd in an armored vehicle.

When a bank in Iraq loses money like this, there is no FDIC insurance like back in the real world, so I am just curious how is Warka Bank recovering there losses and how are they recording there losses to the Central Bank of Iraq? They lost $800,000 usd in a robbery a month ago and Warka is not getting that money back unless they recover the actual money stolen. What are the chances of that happening?

It has been reported that some of the bank robberies in Iraq have been with the help of bank employees. The Warka bank robbery with the armored cars is suspicious because hardly an Iraqi bank that I know of moved large sums of money in armored cars as they left the bank. It is usually done in a car that can blend in with the traffic and not stand out in a crowd and quickly goes from point A to point B. This particular robbery screams an inside job.

It has never been reported what was the $800,000 usd was it the overseas depositors funds or the proxy fund (I am going to invest in the ISX) either or would be tragic indeed. If I was involved with Warka Bank which I have no tie at all and never plan too, I would be asking some questions.

You still think were close to an rv?

Posted by American Contractor at 7:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I have mentioned before that the Oil Ministry Mr. Husayn al-Shahristani, travels frequently and meets interesting people and now the hammer is getting ready to fall. The PM al-Maliki has told him that if he doesn’t solve the Fuel crisis he will be sacked.

The fuel crisis can’t be solved quickly so he just might be replaced. It doesn’t matter, I am sure the Iranians will take care of him after he in fact loses his cabinet post. I am sure the Iranians are boosting there refined oil production to save there little buddy, remember he was the one that helped the Iranians get the oil contract.

Posted by American Contractor at 7:04 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I really like this guy the Oil Ministry Mr. Hussein Shahristani, he always gets to travel abroad and meet some every interesting people. Recently he went to Tehran to secure a contract agreement with the Iranians.

Tehran is going to purchase 100,000 barrels of crude oil a day from Iraq and in exchange Tehran will sell two million liters of refined oil products the petrol and kerosene to Baghdad.

There is a fuel crisis in Iraq and Baghdad is trying to do the best they can for the Iraqi people and I understand however, why Tehran?? Why didn’t the oil Ministry Mr. Shahristani go to Jordan, Turkey, Kuwait. There were several options then Tehran. And the other neighboring countries have plenty of refineries to assist Baghdad with fuel products.

I wonder if Baghdad received a phone call from Washington as soon as the contract was signed in Tehran. Advising Baghdad to cancel the contract with Tehran and go to another neighboring country.

Washington will most likely impose economic sanctions on Iran next month and it might not have any effect if Iraq continued to conduct business with Tehran. I am sure the arrangement with Iraq and Iran doesn’t sit well in Washington circles.

Posted by American Contractor at 12:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

If you remember a MP Taysir al-Mashhadani was abducted almost two months ago and she is a member of the Iraqi Islamic Party and she was just recently released, she said her captors treated her well. The abductors let her watch TV and the news. What is different then all the other kidnapping cases and don’t get me wrong there were others that were kidnapped and released with out the prime time TV and next your beheaded party.

But she exchanged email address and web sites with her captors. She said she wanted to keep the dialogue going even after her freedom. I guess later she will invite them all for dinner at the Ministry inside the IZ. I have an idea get all the insurgencies and the die-hards email address invite them all for dinner and maybe just maybe they will stop killing each other and see that they too can have the good life as Mrs. Al-Mashhadani.

I wonder what she talked about for almost two months?!! Maybe they couldn’t stand her anymore and two months was all they could take and they told her to leave, there’s got to be more to the story. If I hear anything I will let ya know.

Posted by American Contractor at 12:07 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

There is a oil pipeline that runs between Bajji and Kirkuk which is north of Baghdad, and the Kurds are asking for permission to use the Peshmerga Forces to guard this oil pipeline.

I think it is a way to get more Kurds especially with guns in the area around Kirkuk. Soon they will have to decide who really has control of Kirkuk and the oil field.

The Peshmerga forces are above the green line and I am sure can’t wait to deploy south to this particular pipeline near Kirkuk and hold some ground, and maybe they can’t wait to engage the Arabs, nicely of course with candy and flowers and a homey hug.

Oh and there is one more thing the Kurds are asking for from the Central Baghdad government and that is the Fuel funds that are allocated for the purchase of the fuel for northern Iraq, well they want the money directly so they can purchase the Fuel themselves.

Apparently the Kurds feel they are getting shortchanged when it comes to distributing the fuel to the Kurdistan area. The Kurds feel they can do better then having the government looking out for them. It makes sense I guess they saw what happened in New Orleans.

Posted by American Contractor at 12:00 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Before the Iraq invasion the Russians had a good thing going in Iraq with all the oil contracts worth billions that is until Big Army rolled in. Now the Russians are hoping to get back in on the action and are close to signing agreements with South Oil Company for access to the major oil field in the south.

Don’t worry when the Russian representative was invited for dinner in Central Baghdad guessed who opened the door for them, you guessed it Exxon/Mobile. Nothing personal it’s just business.

Posted by American Contractor at 11:55 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

There have been more bank robberies occurring in Iraq then what has been recently reported. Just recently the Raghibat Khatun Bank was held up and several employees were killed. The thieves managed to remove a small sum of seven million dinars.

In another recent Bank robbery in the town of Al-Amiriyah the robbers left with hundreds of million of dinar.

Looks like a trend in bank robbery in Iraq and getting more violent has the robbers look for more banks to rob and it is not hard to rob a bank in Iraq when you have bank employees helping the robbers steal the money. Inside jobs like maybe the Warka Bank robbery that occurred a few months ago.

With the recent rise in Bank robberies in Iraq the Iraqi’s are removing there deposits and opting to deposit there money inside stock exchanges in neighboring countries such as Egypt and Jordan and other banks outside of Iraq. The Iraqi’s feel the banks are not doing enough to safeguard there deposits and not upgrading there security or changing tactics of how they transport money from one bank to another.

Posted by American Contractor at 11:48 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The Oil Ministry Al-Sharistani a few days ago in Iraq had announced that oil production is up to two million barrels a day and could jump to 2.5 million barrels a day.

We have conflicting information from Mr. Al-Sharistani and the South Oil Company spokesperson who has recently said that the oil production has dropped to one million barrels a day. A far cry from two million barrels a day as the Oil Ministry had stated earlier.

I think I believe the South Oil Spokesperson who has also said that the reason for the decline of the oil production is the lack of maintenance and repairs, the degrading of key production chains, and the sorely lack of funds needed for sustaining operations.

The Foreign Investment Law which looks like will be sent through the Iraqi Parliament at the end of the year will help with the influx of cash to the Iraqi oil industry.

Posted by American Contractor at 11:38 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)