Iraq’s newly appointed
oil minister said on Tuesday that the central
government should handle all contracts related to
petroleum exploration and production, putting him on
a potential collision course with the autonomous
Kurdistan region which has recently begun to develop
its own oil resources.
Hussein al-Shahristani also said at a Baghdad news
conference that the country hoped to pass an
investment law soon to bring in foreign investment
to upgrade the country’s battered oil
infrastructure.
“Any oil production, exports or exploration should
be handled by the [Baghdad] ministry of oil,” said
Mr Shahristani, a member of the Shia-led United
Iraqi Alliance, in one of his first statements since
a national unity government was announced at the
weekend. |
Oil Fields and Refinery in Kurdistan (Iraq)
Photo: AFP |
|
He had earlier said that Iraq’s new government
needed to get “national agreement” from regional oil
officials on ambiguous articles in the constitution
governing investment.
Under their own interpretation of the constitutional
articles governing oil resources, the northern
Kurdistan regional government signed an agreement in
November with a Norwegian company to begin the first
new drilling in post-invasion Iraq. Since then, a
Canadian and a Turkish company have also began
drilling in the north.
Mr Shahristani also emphasised the importance of
foreign investment, in statements apparently aimed
at international companies concerned that a new
government with a heavy component of Shia Islamists
and Sunni Arab nationalists might draft legislation
that limits the kind of contracts they might sign.
“There is [a] need to pass an oil and gas law to
guarantee the right conditions for international
companies to help develop the Iraqi oil sector,” he
said.
Iraqi officials have estimated that the country may
need as much as $25bn (€20bn, £13bn) to restore and
modernise an oil industry ravaged by pre-war
sanctions, post-war looting and sabotage,
administrative lethargy and corruption.
Until now, Iraq’s succession of transitional and
interim governments has prevented the creation of a
national oil policy, while production has remained
stagnant at about 2.14m barrels a day in April, less
than the pre-war peak of 2.5m.
ft com
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