The text of a 19-page, international trade agreement being drafted in secret was published by WikiLeaks on Thursday as the transparency group’s editor commemorated his two-year anniversary confined to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

The whistleblower and transparency website WikiLeaks published on Thursday the secret draft text of the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA), a controversial global trade agreement promoted by the United States and European Union that covers 50 countries and is opposed by global trade unions and anti-globalization activists.

Während der Weltöffentlichkeit wieder mal ein Terrorkriegs-Szenario im Irak um eine aus dem Nichts zu Legionsstärke aufgepoppte Miliz “ISIL” vorgegaukelt wird, dreht sich die Krise im Irak in Wirklichkeit um die lukrativen Öl-Felder Kurdistans. Deren Ausbeutung ist von der Regionalregierung der Autonomen Region Kurdistans, unter Massud Barzani als Präsidenten und seinem Neffen Nechirvan Barzani als Premierminister, in Form eines über 50 Jahre angelegten Deals mit der Regierung der Türkei an diverse Konsortien verschachert worden, komplett an der Zentralregierung in Bagdad vorbei.

The crisis in Iraq should be sorted out between Iraqis alone as it was a product of the sectarian divisions in the country, writes Saudi Arabia‘s ambassador to the UK.

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Despite the slow recovery of the global economy in 2013, China‘s economy and domestic demand for petroleum and petrochemical products grew steadily over the past year. Giving full play to our integrated business model, we focused on the quality and efficiency of growth and development. We made steady progress on multiple fronts by deepening reform, restructuring our business model, promoting innovation in our work streams, increasing revenue and controlling costs. (…)

We hope to move forward in partnership with you, so that together we may realise our efforts to create a brilliant future for Sinopec Corp.

Fu Chengyu
Chairman

Beijing, China
March 21, 2014

Tony Hayward:
Chief Executive Officer

Mehmet Sepil:
President

Julian Metherell:
Chief Financial Officer

(10. August 2012) The central government in Baghdad has lost its energy fight against the regional administration in Arbil, says Mehmet Sepil, the chief executive of Genel Energy, which is active in the lucrative northern Iraqi oil fields

(18.Juni 2014) China is Iraq‘s largest oil client, and its state energy firms, which also include Sinopec Group and CNOOC Ltd, together hold more than a fifth of the country‘s oil projects after securing some of its fields through auctions held in 2009.

On July 7, 2013 Mr. Rasheed Tahir, the KRG Deputy Minister of Finance and Economy received a Chinese companies delegations heading by Mr. Kang Hubiao. In a meeting, the delegation shed light on the purpose of the visit which is to be well known of Kurdistan Region‘s economic and finance sectors‘ condition in order to bring their companies to do investment which are specialized to consultant, economic infrastructure, and finance and energy sectors.

Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani was elected to DNO’s board of directors in the spring of 2011 and to the chairmanship of the Company in the summer of that year. Mr Mossavar-Rahmani serves concurrently as Chairman of the board and Chief Executive Officer of RAK Petroleum PCL, DNO’s largest shareholder, and also Chairman of the board of directors of Foxtrot International, LDC, a privately held Franco-American oil and gas company active in West Africa.

DNO ASA ‘DNO’ is a Middle East and North Africa (MENA) focused oil and gas company listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. The Company holds stakes in oil and gas blocks in various stages of exploration, development and production both onshore and offshore in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, the Republic of Yemen, the Sultanate of Oman, the United Arab Emirates, the Tunisian Republic and Somaliland.

Mr. Julian Metherell has been Chief Financial Officer at Genel Energy plc since November 21st, 2011. Mr. Metherell served as Co-Head of the Bank‘s UK Investment Banking Division of The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. from May 2007 to 2011 and served as its Managing Director.

Genel Energy plc is an oil company with a registered office in Jersey and field office in Turkey. It has its exploration and production operations in Iraqi Kurdistan with plans to expand its activities into other Middle East and North African countries. The company owns rights in six production sharing contracts, including interests in the Taq Taq, Tawke, and Chia Surkh fields.

Genel Energy was created in 2011 as a result of the reverse acquisition of Turkish Genel Enerji by Tony Hayward led investment company Vallares. Vallares was set up by Tony Hayward, financier Nat Rothschild and banker Julian Metherell. Genel Enerji was controlled by Mehmet Emin Karamehmet through Çukurova Group (56%) and Mehmet Sepil‘s family (44%).

(07.09.2011) Today came the announcement of their first foray — the acquisition of Turkish oil company Genel Energy, a subsidary of Cukurova Holdings, owned by billionaire Mehmet Emin Karamehmet, the richest man in Turkey ($4 billion net worth at Forbes’ last reckoning). (…)
But the most significant partner is Sinopec. The Chinese giant is a relatively new partner for Genel.

(06.11.2011) Vallares, an acquisition vehicle established by Hayward and financier Nat Rothschild, has agreed in principle to a tie-up with Genel Enerji, which owns oil fields in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq, and is expected to announce a deal in the coming days, the source said.

(09.12.2013) The pipeline starts at Taq Taq oilfield, passes through Khurmala oilfield and reaches the North Kurdistan-South Kurdistan border (i.e., Iraq-Turkey border) in Fishkhabur. It connects there with another pipeline that runs to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. (…) The contract between Turks and Kurds was announced immediately after a landmark meeting that the South Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani (left picture) and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan maintained in mid November in Diyarbakir, the city regarded as the de facto capital of North Kurdistan.

(8. Juni 2014) DNO is the operator of Tawke and said that around 40 per cent of the produced crude was delivered into the new export pipeline at Fish Khabur, whilst the other 60 per cent was sold locally into the domestic market.

(25. Januar 2014) Of the numerous missing details about the new pipeline, two fundamental facts are conspicuously absent:

1) Where is the new pipeline? Maps previously published by oil companies operating in the region indicated that the pipeline (blue in the map below) would start in Iraqi Kurdistan, either near the Taq Taq or Kurdamir licenses. Media reports speculated that the pipeline would then connect to the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline (red in the map below) in Turkish territory, beyond a Baghdad-controlled metering station (yellow in the map below) near Fish Khabur.

2) Who is building the pipeline? It is certainly being built with the consent of both the Turkish government and Iraqi Kurdistan. The construction, however, is likely subcontracted out to an unknown private company.

(19. November 2013) Recep Tayyip Erdoğan était ce week-end, comme prévu, à Diyarbakır pour y rencontrer le président de la région kurde d’Irak du nord, Massoud Barzani. Ce séjour avait comme premier objectif affiché de raviver le processus de règlement de la question kurde, entré en sommeil, depuis que les événements de Gezi Parkı ont ébranlé la Turquie, en mai-juin derniers. De fait, il n’est pas étonnant qu’il se soit attaché à entretenir une symbolique forte.

(9. Juni 2009) UK-based oil explorer Heritage Oil (HOIL.L) agreed to merge with Genel Energy International, a unit of Turkey‘s Cukurova Group [CUKRO.UL], to create an oil producer focused on Iraqi Kurdistan worth around $5.5 billion.

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