Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
Iraq will be paying us directly what the KRG was, so no increase in contractual terms.
However it could be a much more reliable payment mechanism, with contractual agreements fully endorsed by Baghdad.
Start up them wells, and start dishing out a goodly chunk of the 80M in the bank to shareholders here. Or even better give forward notice to dish out say 50M in a couple of months.
Then let the market decide....whats that burning we ask.
Just putting some factual data out for 2023
Iraq oil production 4.43M Population 42M
Saudi oil production 10.48 Population 33.4M
Clearly some huge disconnects there, facts which are not lost on the OPEC leaders.
Exactly right sir, investors get hung up on quotas thinking in some way Kurdistan production will be curtailed in order to meet some target where they havn't been meeting their OPEC target for years.
What they mean is they stand by the principles of OPEC, and up to now havn't really complained as unable to reach it anyway. These facts are firmly understood by some of the other Arab leaders, who have be able to substantially grow their economies and have huge cash reserves while Iraq has struggled for years. If Iraq asks for more it will be granted.
I actually believe that Turkey is key into resolving Iraq's problems, although some judiciary in Baghdad would rather side with Iran which has been the cause of a power struggle there. What Iraq and Kurdistan need, is decent electrical security moving forward coupled by a gas export line. Turkey holds the key here and is ideally placed to aid them, due to its ability to obtain western help and equipment.
Just need to demonstrate to all that they stand true to all contracts even if in the light of day now they were not the best that might be achieved now, but the best that could be achieved at that time.
Certainly not an anti Turkey website al all, we all know all three parties, Kurdistan, Turkey, are most certainly not whiter than white, indeed our our board at the time was also corrupt, knowingly paying themselves extortionate salaries which they were going to ride until the music stopped, along with lavish spending of shareholders funds.
However things are becoming much more transparent now, we have everyone talking about agreements going forward, you can bet your bottom dollar questions have been asked of where's the money been going, for what?, and where's the money for the crude produced and sold...
Bet there's been some squirming for sure.
Great article to read and answers some questions that I had years ago from the TK times. At the time of trucking crude to turkey by oil takers I just couldn't believe the enormous cost of doing so in a region of cheap fuel and labour costs.. Now that has been laid to rest it was clear corruption by Turkish officials holding Kurdistan to ransom. Kozel and all the board would have all known about it, right till the times the pipeline flow was established.
Little wonder now, why the Turkish pipeline costs are so high, but better than the trucking costs?
However there is also a real biggy here that must not be overlooked, if Turkey is paying compensation, which might be used to part satisfy the IOC's and get the crude flowing again.
That is the all important face, where Iraq officials can emerge victorious having solved the long term issue (despite being a deliberate blocking party for many years).
Not out of the woods yet, but moving forward.
Pressure is increasing on Iraq with the screw being tightened further to get the crude flowing again. Now we have the Kurdish populace in Syria, joining Turkey in with holding water flows from Iraq.
They cant drink crude, its a straight swop, crude flows then so does water..and they are desperate for it.
https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/09022024
TSSZ, couple of really great comments on your last couple of posts sir, especially about the positive one pointing towards Baghdad actually wanting to get the crude flowing again really made me think.
Can I just ask investors here, to forget the western mind set, and think possibly of an Iraqi position especially those in a majority in Baghdad who want what's best for iraq and not Iran.
They are clearly aware of the growing in power and reach of Iran, and know of its militant groups within Iraq, which they are very hard pushed to do much about without stirring up a local hornets nest leading to yet more assignations bombing and death. However current events give rise to the perfect opportunity for Uncle Sam to rid these problematic infiltrators into Iraq, while keeping themselves whiter than white.
They will probably publicly protest to the USA about it as well...Keeps up good public profile and stops any future blowback.
I expect an export deal to now be achieved sooner than later, and will buy if we dip tomorrow.
For me it was all about trust in SA and others I believed. When that trust is broken it can never be repaired. Although I'll get abuse for it, I'm going just to say this once and its the truth, because I took loads of stick for it at the time.
When questioning that "pre sales inquiries were going up at an alarming rate", after the Birmingham meet what 6 years ago, I was subsequently told in a private phone call from someone I trust and everyone on here knows that, that number had already surpassed 50,000. This came from SA inn a "slip of the tongue". Clearly this was wild exaggeration and false as time proved, and I fell for it.
recently we have all been hearing news on how the middle east is certainly in turmoil mainly due to unrest from organisations backed by iranian influence.
think we must all admit that they do seem pretty effective, and have been suppling russia with a stream of drones, and having signed another much deeper 20 year co-operation package it will enable them to receive technology to manufacture more advanced hardware. they have attacked organisations that they do not agree with in ****stan, iraq, yemen, and supplied weapons to gaza. in fact anyone willing with a roughly aligned cause.
however i believe by using their power, they have overstepped the mark. countries like iraq with long land borders, and a population that fought a long war against iran must have unsettled the population who remember the conflicts against their old enemy.
they are fully aware of this rising power right next door to them, and will probably want to safeguard some protectionist measures against a complete takeover in the future.
china plays a very long game based on trade, and rarely uses direct military force just to help out a friendly country, let alone iraq, so they are good for trade with envelopes but not force.
that leaves uncle sam who also has an aligned interest, but a terrible short term history which has also not been forgiven. however its really all they have so in effect "the enemy of my enemy is my friend".
iraqs top brass going to meet top usa officials soon. what better way to cement relations a but by getting the crude following again which will keep, kurdistan, turkey..oh yes the ioc's as well, and enable them to make more money now they control the purse strings.
think many have not recognised this point of view.
facts clearly not missed by the ioc's, and hence the letter to congress, so it will also certainly be on the table.
With the new acquisition will it allow for opti products to be distributed and sold at mates rates. Look nice in premium stores.
After all every opti holder holds stock here indirectly via the amount of stock OPTI holds. Believe if sbtx was not being handicapped by excessive salary drawdown it might do ok. Almost as if SBTX needs to go back under the wing of OPTI again, with only one management team to pay.
SOH has helped SA out in the past by not overly selling down SBTX, this might not continue if a clear marketing opportunity for opti stock like this was not accepted. Its a strange one as the companies like its shareholders are still intertwined. So could be a free play for opti....was this why one researcher suggested his followers buy opti.
What we are seeing is small tentative steps in the right direction. First of all we just had "contracts are illegal".
Then found out they were so dumb they didn't even know exactly what the contracts were.
This has been rectified and explained to them, and they now understand exactly why their was a big difference in the two types of contracts. Strangely enough they then understood the rational behind all the contracts which I suspect is fairer than they administer out in SOMO.
Then we have seen prices offered jump 350% in value from $6 to nearly $21 per barrel, but nothing about the 151M of crude that was sold and money trousered. This will be addressed I suspect in stages.
So that's a huge initial jump and for the hard bargaining double dealing Arabs signifies that they most certainly want to play ball.
They then get the KRG to try and sell it. Probably tried to dress it up as a "take it or leave it deal", which might work on the street corner, but wont cut ice with tough oilmen holding fully legal contracts on which they know they can get legal compensation ultimately. However they also don't want any long winded multi year path to this recourse unless really stuck, but nice to have in the back pocket.
Losses to SOMO due to world events for unused pipeline going up almost day by day.
Relations with Iran failing, latest being gas for power generation. Iranian missiles aimed into Iraq to kill Iraqis also sours things quickly and raises public anger forcing even those with Iranian leanings to come off the fence in support of Iraq.
Iraq still needs to hold a public face of contract adherence, and what we have seen is only the initial offer to the IOC's.
Things take time but good to hear from todays RNS that we are being included in discussions and I expect the next meeting will be pretty soon. Its on the record that SOMO pays $30 per barrel to at least one company, which I expect included a big "arrangement fee", but they can clearly offer this and the IOC's know it.
The IOC's do currently have the whip hand in talks.
Think its important not to get drawn in to the small fluctuations in shareprice or those trying to get the price down so they can purchase cheaper by spouting garbage. Do find on these boards that the worst posters just extract a small part of a post then try to abuse the poster with it but not offering any real company related news or links.
Was never going to be a fast smooth ride but things are most certainly progressing more quickly now.
As the shareholders on here are actually shareholders in SBTX due to the companies extensive share holdings, it stands to reason that the great shelf space and distribution network offered after SBTX 's latest company acquisition such as boots should also be offered to promote the parent company as well, at mates rates.
Either that or sell the holding in SBTX, which will drive price to low figs indeed and reabsorb SBTX, disposing of its underperforming board, saving a fortune in overheads.
Now we have confirmed by secondary sources that the IOC's, have reached out to the USA for assistance.
What we can read into this is the IOC's response, that the current punitive terms offered by the SOMO officials don't go anywhere near resolving the issue and are clearly insufficient in persuading the IOC's to restart crude production.
For western ethics "a contract is a contract", and when IOC's invest billions in exploring and drilling they don't expect Iraqi officials to try and backstab them in changing contracts after they have met their side of the contracts.
Probably because the KRG got the backhanders and they SOMO did not. ...Its normally something like this.
This has far reaching implications for every company offering or likely to offer assistance to Iraq, that they cannot be trusted even at the highest levels. We see that Iraq is still trying to pull its self out of the third world despite having a really large income per capita population. Acts like these reach world stages and will cause many other companies decide not to even quote for contracts or work.
They have only themselves to blame here, and must "reap what you sow".
Financial losses for the unused pipeline are now about $45M per day now, and shipping knock on delays meaning they cannot even make OPEC quotas, despite now discounting all feedstocks loaded in the gulf due to shipping costs.
RNS today pulls no wool over anyones eyes, and great to see our company can withstand this type of financial blackmail and clear attempts at contract breach.
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Oil-Firms-Urge-US-to-Pressure-Iraq-to-Restart-Kurdistans-Exports.html
Iranian influence in Iraq and several other local countries is aimed ultimately at promoting their religion, albeit at the end of an AK47. Key to their current policy is total removal of all USA personnel and investments from other countries around it as well along with their western backers. Blatant bribery and deliberate delay is all part of the process to make business untenable for them in Iraq, and a major reason why XOM has quit. They then pass their interests to companies with less morals like Chinese or even better Russian ones who they have signed a 20 year co-operation deal with very recently. However Iraq is not Iran, although the Iranian influences are most certainly beginning to prevail and a major goal is the strangulation of the Kurdish economy which is seen as pro-western in views, and having Turkish backing in major contracts. Know investors here see both sides of the coin and we should not be ignorant of the risks involved. Although I post positive posts as I see them developing, we all know that the tide is currently running against all those who back the west in favour of Russian /Iran agreements and strengths.
China sees both sides and quietly builds its strength around the world, while also snapping up lucrative contracts.
We have already seen Uncle Sam getting involved early this in trying to get the export issue resolved and it got no where. I must admit to being a bit puzzled by this approach if true, as better to continue to quietly work to resolve issues with decent progress being made, than trying to get direct USA influence involved which will get Iraqi politicians backs up and possibly backfire in spectacular fashion.