Tishwash: What is the total spending and price of a barrel of oil in the 2025 budget?
The Prime Minister’s Advisor for Financial Affairs, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, specified the expected total spending, the hypothetical deficit, and the price of a barrel in the 2025 budget.
Saleh said, “Next year’s budget 2025 will not deviate from the constants approved in the Federal General Budget Law (the three-year budget) submitted by the government and approved by the House of Representatives for the years 2023-2024-2025, especially in the principles and objectives consistent with the government program.”
He added, “Despite this, the 2025 budget must be hedged with a hypothetical deficit of 64 trillion dinars, which is a (precautionary) deficit that has been established by law; to avoid fluctuations in the general budget revenues for the coming year, especially oil revenues that are subject to fluctuations in the oil asset cycle and the conditions of energy markets in the world, as long as the total spending ceiling will touch perhaps 200 trillion dinars, depending on the financial and economic circumstances of the country.”
He explained that “the price of a barrel of oil in the three-year budget, to which the 2025 budget is subject, was set at $70 and an export capacity of 3.4 million barrels per day for the purposes of determining oil revenues in the general budget.” link
Tishwash: Is gold in Iraq affected by global prices? Expert explains
Growing geopolitical tensions are pushing investors towards safe assets such as gold, driven by a desire to protect themselves from risks and instability in global markets. Are gold prices in Iraq affected by global prices?
In this regard, Mustafa Hantoush, who is concerned with financial and banking affairs, confirmed that Iraq is not a gold-producing country, and
its people buy more than they sell due to hoarding and traditions. Therefore, its markets depend on global gold prices in buying and selling.
Hantoush told Iraq Observer, “One of the most important reasons for the rise in global gold prices is the increase in the dealings of countries such as (Russia – China – Belarus) in gold as an alternative to smuggled goods and oil.”
He added, “There is also a trend by the central banks of the world’s countries to strengthen their reserves with gold instead of currencies and bonds.”
He added, “In addition to the increase in inflation in the equivalent dollar amounts in the US economy, which increases the risks of the dollar and makes investment and savings tend towards gold.”
He pointed out that “the scarcity of global gold sources in the face of a large population expansion creates a demand for gold as a result of societal uses such as marriage and others,” explaining that “if there is a rise in gold globally, prices inside Iraq will witness a rise, and if it decreases globally, there will also be a decrease inside Iraq.”
About a year ago, some gold traders resorted to buying dollars and making commercial transfers by purchasing quantities of gold, which enabled them to buy dollars at the official price, and contributed to additional profits through transfers via gold trading. link
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Tishwash: Oil: Gas investment project implementation with Total is progressing within the specified timeframe
The Ministry of Oil confirmed, today, Friday, that the gas investment project work with the French company Total is proceeding within the specified timeframes.
A statement by the ministry – received by the Iraqi News Agency (INA) – stated that “Undersecretary of the Ministry for Extraction Affairs, Basem Mohammed Khader, chaired the seventh meeting of the Joint Management Committee for the project, in the presence of Undersecretary of the Ministry for Gas Affairs, Izzat Saber, Director General of Basra Oil Company, Basem Abdul Karim, and Director General of South Gas Company, Hamza Abdul Baqi.”
The Undersecretary said during the meeting – according to the statement – that “the progress of the implementation of the gas investment project implemented by the French company Total in Basra is proceeding within the specified timeframes, as confirmed in the government program and the directives of Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs and Minister of Oil, Hayan Abdul Ghani.”
The Undersecretary confirmed – after chairing the meeting – that “the project is one of the important and strategic projects on which great hopes are pinned, as it includes important projects, including the development of the Artawi field and gas investment in five oil fields in two phases with a capacity of 600 mcm, each phase 300 mcm, in addition to the seawater project to inject water into the fields to compensate for the depleted pressures, as well as the solar electric energy project with a capacity of 1000 megawatts in four phases, each phase 250 megawatts.”
He added, “The meeting discussed several topics, the most important of which is how to start the accelerated gas investment project, which is an additional paragraph for the project that was not included in the obligations, but was added after the directives of the leadership of the oil sector and the government on the necessity of closing the gas flaring file and optimal investment of associated gas, and the project was referred with a capacity of 50 cubic meters.”
The statement continued, “During the meeting, the mechanisms for starting drilling operations were discussed, as tenders were referred in this regard, and they will begin after December of this year,” noting that “the seismic surveys project was assigned to a Chinese company in cooperation with the Oil Exploration Company.”
He pointed out that “regarding the seawater project, there are negotiations with one of the companies in agreement with Total, and we hope to reach understandings in this regard.”
The statement explained that “the meeting stressed the importance of the participation of Iraqi workers from graduates and other workers in the project, and this will be through contracting with them directly from Total, without the need for other parties.” link
