Kurds keep looking to run their oil
sector independently of Baghdad
Iraqi Shiite businessmen are complaining the Kurdish Regional
Government (KRG) will not help them invest in Kurdistan Iraq if the
Oil Ministry in Baghdad continues to contest the oil projects there.
Reports from Baghdad suggest that Iraqi Shiite investors are now
turning from Baghdad and southern Iraq towards northern Iraq, either
to expand their business or search for a new opportunity.
The KRG encourages those investors to work in Kurdistan and promises
them alluring returns. It even tries to woo Iranian and Kuwaiti
Shiite businessmen to work there as well.
But the KRG wants them in return to use their influence and convince
the government of PM Nuri Al-Maliki and the (Shiite) United Iraqi
Alliance (UIA) not to meddle in its own oil affairs.
Some Kurdish groups, including notably the Kurdish Democratic Party
(KDP), keep looking to decentralize oil deals and upstream work. For
them, the KRG must have full control over oil affairs, and has not
to refer to Baghdad each time it intends to conclude a deal or begin
oil works.
However, this will not help settle the oil deals issue between
Baghdad and the KRG, which seems to have become affecting the
decisions of some foreign corporate executives.
Kurdish sources say some Japanese oil companies have recently told
the KRG that they prefer to take their time before going ahead with
their investment projects in northern Iraq.
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