|
ZAKHO,
Kurdistan-Iraq - The semiautonomous Kurdish region
in northern Iraq has struck a deal with a foreign
oil company to drill for oil in a mountainous region
just outside this town. Kurdish leaders hope the new
oil well will spur further exploration in the area
and tighten the regional government's control over
its oil wealth.
But the agreement has raised eyebrows in Baghdad,
where Kurdish aspirations for autonomy are viewed
critically by some Sunni and Shiite Muslims. It was
the first time the Kurdish regional government
contracted directly with a foreign company to
explore for oil.
Motasam Akram Hassan, deputy oil minister in
Baghdad, acknowledged the concerns. Some "people
don't like Kurdish people. They say they drill oil
and want oil for themselves," he said. Yet, Hassan
said the Kurdish government received approval from
the ministry to negotiate the deal.
The Kurdish regional government unveiled the rig
just weeks before next Thursday's parliamentary
elections. Regional autonomy and the distribution of
oil revenue have emerged as key issues.
"With the commencement of the (Zakho) drilling,
Sunni politicians have seized on the event in an
attempt to make it a major election issue," said
Peter Khalil, a Middle East analyst at Eurasia
Group, a political risk consulting firm based in New
York City.
The control of Iraq's oil wealth — concentrated in
the Shiite south and around Kirkuk in the north —
was also hotly debated during the writing of the
country's new constitution.
The document, approved in a referendum Oct. 15, says
oil revenue should be distributed by the central
government in Baghdad, but other details remain
vague.
"Given the vagueness of the language in the
constitutional provisions determining oil policy,
the uncertainty will likely cause further disputes
in 2006," Khalil said.
Some Kurdish politicians are now campaigning on a
platform that advocates changing the constitution
and giving Kurds more control over their oil wealth.
"To be able to benefit from the natural resources we
have, we have to go to the ballot box in the
election," said the prime minister of the region,
Nichervan Barzani.
Most of the oil production in the north is around
the city of Kirkuk, just outside the
Kurdish-controlled region. Iraq has an estimated 115
billion barrels of proven reserves, the world's
third largest, according to the Oil & Gas Journal.
Iraq is producing about 2.1 million barrels of crude
per day now, down from a peak of 3.7 million barrels
before Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, according to the
U.S. Department of Energy.
The Kurds reached an agreement with a Norwegian oil
company, DNO, to build the rig about 12 miles from
here in a mountainous region where black pools of
oil seep effortlessly through the ground. The rig
was unveiled in a ceremony last week.
It will take at least two months to dig through
3,000 meters of rock and clay, said Tarik Abdullah
Chalabi, the general manager of the project. DNO
expects to tap an oil basin 19 miles long by 5 miles
wide. It is the first new well in Iraq since 1991,
Iraq's Oil Ministry said.
The Kurds hope the DNO deal will jump-start
production inside the Kurdish-controlled region,
which historically has produced little. "We will
find sufficient amounts of oil that it's
commercially viable to exploit," said Magne Normann,
the company's vice president.
About nine foreign oil companies are active in
Iraq's Kurdish region. DNO is the first to strike a
deal directly with the regional government in the
Kurdish north instead of going through the oil
ministry in Baghdad.
"If everything is in the hands of Baghdad, the
opportunity for abuse can happen," said Stafford
Clarry, an adviser to the regional government.
www.usatoday.com
Top |
® 