Shafaq News / The Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF) on Wednesday ranked Iraq as a country highly committed to recommendations on combating money laundering and terrorist financing.
The Media Center of the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council, in a statement received by Shafaq News, said that the organization decided at its general meeting held in the Kingdom of Bahrain for the period from May 19-23, to consider Iraq one of the countries that are highly committed to the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in the field of combating money laundering and terrorist financing.
He pointed out that “the report of the residents on Iraq and the adeqency of the procedures followed by the Iraqi authorities in the field of combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism were accepted.”
He pointed out that accepting the residents’ report “means continuing not to include Iraq on the gray list, which is the list of high-risk countries in the field of combating money laundering and terrorist financing, after the Iraqi team succeeded in convincing the general meeting of MENA FATV of the adequacy of the measures taken by it in this field.”
The media center explained that the two deputy presidents of the Karkh Court of Appeal, Judges Ali Hussein Jaffat, Lia Jafar, and the Deputy Chairman of the Russafa Court of Appeal, Judge Ayad Mohsen, participated in the meeting with a group of representatives of the Anti-Money Laundering Office of the Central Bank of Iraq, as well as representatives of the rest of the relevant Iraqi institutions.
Shafaq News / The parliamentary finance committee began holding its first meeting today, Wednesday, after receiving the budget schedules for the year 2024.
A parliamentary source told Safaq News that the meeting aims to review the budget schedules and start studying them for the purpose of proceeding with their ratification.
Subsequently, the Finance Committee confirmed in a statement, holding its first meeting of the Federal Budget Law of 2024 with the aim of developing a comprehensive plan by reviewing and analyzing its budget schedules and items after its arrival from the Prime Minister.
The Chairman of the Finance Committee, Atwan Al-Atwani, announced that he received the budget schedules after its arrival from the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, in preparation for discussing them and drawing up its own financial policy, stressing the speedy completion before the end of the legislative term of the Council.
The statement noted that the committee decided to host the finance and planning ministers to discuss the details of the tables, as well as host those concerned to listen to opinions and proposals.
The statement continued, the committee was briefed on the details received, noting the need to analyze the data contained in current and investment expenditures, as the committee agreed to prepare a summary report and present it to the House of Representatives.
Yesterday, the Acting Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mohsen Al-Mandalawi, referred the draft federal budget law 2024 to the Finance Committee after receiving it from the Iraqi government.
The 2024 budget, according to what was announced by the Sudanese Prime Minister Mohamed Shia last Sunday, is 211 trillion dinars, and the salaries of employees for the year 2024 amount to 62 trillion dinars, while the budget for the year 2023 amounted to 199 trillion dinars and the salaries of employees are 59 trillion dinars.
The revenues of the 2024 budget, according to the Sudanese, are estimated at “144 trillion and 336 billion dinars, while the expenditure is 210 trillion and 936 billion dinars, while the deficit is 63 trillion and 599 billion dinars.”
“The governorate allocations to local government programs amounted to an investment allocation of 10.633 trillion dinars in 2023, and we financed 3.333 trillion, based on fundamentalic requests from the governorates,” Al-Sudan said, adding “The rest of the allocation is 7.333 trillion dinars in the Amanat account, at the disposal of the provincial governments.”
The North Refineries Company of the Ministry of Oil announced today, Wednesday, the total refining capacity of the North Refineries, while noting the continued development of refineries and upgrading them to the ranks of international companies.
The director of the project management department at the company, Atta Aliwi Hussein Al-Hamdani, said: “The North Refineries Company is witnessing a great renaissance and development that will make it in the ranks of major liquidation companies in the Middle East, where the cadres of the Project Management Department, the Maintenance Authority and the supporting company’s departments began to establish Refining Unit 3 at Salah Al-Din Refinery to be the nucleus of Salah Al-Din 3 Refinery 3, which will be added to the company’s refinery complex and a capacity of 70 thousand barrels per day,” noting that “a new refining energy will be added to the current basic refining energies in the company.”
Al-Hamdani added, “Salah Al-Din 1 refinery will reach its refining capacity to 70 thousand barrels per day, and Salah Al-Din 2 refinery with a refining capacity of 70,000 barrels per day, while the North strainery will be with a capacity of 150,000 barrels per day, and the small refining units 2 and 3 in the North Refinery with a capacity of 20,000 barrels per day. It is hoped that these units will enter into operation this year, and Salah Al-Din Safinery 3 will be with a capacity of 70 thousand barrels per day and it is hoped that the refining unit will be completed within one year, and thus the total capacity of the Al-Samud refinery complex during the next year will be approximately 380,000 barrels per day.”
He continued: “As for the external refineries of the company, the project management department, under the guidance of the General Manager of the North Refineries Company, continues to implement the company’s plan to raise refining capacities during the current and next years.”
He explained that “the current capacity of the Kirkuk strainer is 56 thousand barrels and after completing the concentration unit 109 will be 76 thousand barrels per day, while the current capacity of the Chinese refinery will be 30,000 barrels per day and after completing the two new units, the refining capacity will be 50 thousand barrels per day, and the current energy of a modern refinery reaches 16 thousand barrels. After completing the two new units, the refining capacity will be 36 thousand barrels per day, and the Keskury with a current capacity of 20 thousand barrels per day and after completing the new unit, the refinery capacity will be 30 thousand barrels per day, while the Qayah refinery, the available refinery is approximately 12,000 barrels per day and after completing the new unit, the energy will be the energy The refinery is 32 thousand barrels per day,” pointing out that “the refining capacity of the current and added external refineries will be 204 thousand barrels per day.”
He pointed out that “the total refining capacity of the current and added North Refineries Company will be 584 thousand barrels per day, which is an unprecedented refining energy in the field of the liquidation sector, with the addition of complementary units such as hydrogenation units, gaseh, gasoline improvement units, energy units, technical services, pumping and storage units, industrial water transactions and others with projects to modernize units, infrastructure, residential complexes, units and investment refineries.”
He pointed out that “the North Refineries Company also began preparing the requirements for the establishment of a FCC unit, which is a unit consisting of four basic units to maximize the production of improved gasoline material and middle distillers. This unit works on the material of fuel oil or the remaining black oil in the refinery tower produced from the company’s refineries,” pointing out that we seek to implement all plans and programs for raising refining capacities, modernizing and developing the company’s refineries and upgrading them to the ranks of major international companies in the liquidation sector in Iraq and the Middle East.
The Oil Price website on oil affairs said on Monday that oil companies operating in Kurdistan refuse to amend their contracts with the regional government, pointing out that rejecting them will undermine efforts to re-export Kurdish oil.
“Oil companies operating in Kurdistan refuse to amend their contracts with the KRG, which will lead to a dead end in talks on resuming oil exports from Kurdistan,” the British website wrote.
“Companies refuse to amend, so the process stops there,” Prime Minister Mohammed Shiaa Al-Sudani was quoted by the website as saying.
The site added, “Crude oil exports from Kurdistan stopped more than a year ago, after they were closed in March 2023 due to the dispute over who should allow Kurdish exports,” pointing out that “this (impasse) came in the wake of the ruling of the International Chamber of Commerce on a dispute between Turkey and Iraq over Kurdistan oil, and the International Criminal Court ruled in favor of Iraq, which said that Turkey should not allow Kurdish oil exports through the pipeline between Iraq and Turkey and the Turkish port of Ceyhan without the approval of the Iraqi federal government.”
Earlier this year, Iraq’s Oil Ministry said that “foreign oil companies in Iraqi Kurdistan are partly responsible for delays in resuming exports from the semi-autonomous region of OPEC’s second-largest producer.”
Last year, Norwegian company DNO, one of the six members of the Kurdistan Oil Industry Union (APIKUR), said that “international oil companies operating in Kurdistan will not produce oil for export until they have clarity on arrears and futures, payment terms and sales.”
Earlier, foreign companies also called on the U.S. Congress to “take immediate action to help solve the problem of halting crude oil exports from Kurdistan.”
“The export of oil is the basis of Iraq’s economy, and all Iraqis will benefit when full production and global sales from the Kurdistan region are resumed,” Abicor wrote a letter to Congress.
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