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Iraqi officials wrangle with Kurds over
oil law
23.1.2007 |
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BAGHDAD, January
23, -- Senior Iraqi officials will meet again on
Tuesday in an effort to resolve a last-minute hitch
in plans to present a landmark law on the oil
industry to cabinet this week, senior government
sources said.
Since the Oil Ministry announced last week that the
Oil Committee, comprising cabinet ministers and
regional leaders, had finalised a deal, officials
from the Kurdish regional government have demurred,
saying they were still dissatisfied.
One senior member of the committee told Reuters on
Tuesday that after a meeting late on Monday he was
confident that the dispute would be resolved.
The draft law is characterised by the Iraqi and U.S.
governments as vital to secure billions of dollars
of foreign investment to revive Iraq's oil industry
and to dampen ethnic and sectarian conflicts over
the distribution of revenues.
The draft, as released by the Oil Ministry last
week, gives the national government a right of
review over existing contracts signed under former
President Saddam Hussein or by the Kurdish regional
government.
Kurdish officials say the wording does not satisfy
their demand that existing contracts be reviewed
only by the regional government itself to ensure
that they conform with the new draft regulations.
Among such contracts, one is with Norway's DNO
Some Kurdish officials have told Reuters that the
Oil Committee, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister
Barham Salih who is himself a leading Kurdish
politician, pushed through the draft last week
without consulting them.
Reuters
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