Excerpts: Saudi response to Diabetes threat?Development of Iraqi oil and gas
fields June 29, 2009

+++SAUDI GAZETTE 29 June '09:"Jeddah to have world's largest kidney dialysis
center"

RIYADH - King Fahad Hospital in Jeddah will have the world's largest kidney
dialysis center to be built at an estimated cost of SR60($15) million in 18
months . . . which will have 140 dialysis machines.
The Center...will serve more than 800 renal failure patients.
The three-storey Center will employ 17 consultants, 34
resident-physicians and
specialists as well as 280 nurses.
[IMRA: Diabetes is a significant cause of kidney failure. Diabetes is a
growing threat in Saudi.]

+++ EGYPTIAN GAZETTE 29 June '09:"Iraq to open up oilfields ",Agence France
Presse
SUBJECT: Development of Iraqi oil and gas fields
EXCERPTS:BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq will this week unveil which foreign firms
have
won contracts to develop its oil and gas fields, nearly four decades after
Saddam Hussein nationalised the country's energy infrastructure.The
deals...will provide the government with much-needed revenue as it
struggles
to rebuild the country after three wars and 20 years of debilitating
economic sanctions.Thirty-one companies have submitted bids to develop six
giant oilfields and two gas fields. The oil deposits, holding known
reserves
of 43 billion barrels of crude, are in southern and northern Iraq while the
gas concessions are west and northeast of Baghdad."Our principal objective
is to increase our oil production from 2.4 million barrels per day to more
than four million in the next five years," . . .Increasing production to
that level will ...pump an extra $1.7 trillion into government coffers over
the next 20 years.Shahristani has said that only $30 billion of that sum
will go to the companies that have extracted the oil."This is a huge amount
that would finance infrastructure projects across Iraq - schools, roads,
airports, housing, hospitals," he said, insisting that the country would
retain control over its oil reserves.For energy firms, meanwhile, the
appeal
of the Iraqi contracts is the chance to plant a foot firmly in the country,
the first time such an opportunity has been offered since Saddam
nationalised the Iraq Petroleum Company in 1972.. . . Ruba Husari, an
energy
expert and the founder of the website iraqoilforum.com, explained."Today,
the country is stable, in both its security and its institutions."A source
involved in the bidding, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described
Iraq
as "one of the rare countries in the world where the coming decades will
bring real growth in production.""It's a rare opportunity," the source
said.Not all energy companies are happy, though, with the terms of the
contracts being offered by Baghdad.
==========================================
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA