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Iraq threatens to blacklist firms which
signed oil deals with Kurdistan region
15.11.2007
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November 15, 2007
RIYADH,-- Iraq warned on Thursday that
foreign oil companies which signed deals with the
autonomous Kurdistan regional government will be
barred from doing business in the country and from
exporting oil.
"Any company that has signed contracts without the
approval of the federal authority of Iraq will not
have any chance of working with the government of
Iraq," Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani said.
"We warned the companies that there will be
consequences... that Iraq will not allow its oil to
be exported," Shahristani told reporters on the
sidelines of OPEC meetings in the Saudi capital
Riyadh.
Last week, the Kurdish authorities signed seven
production-sharing contracts with a number of
foreign oil companies in defiance of the Iraqi
central government and before approving a
controversial federal oil law.
In October, Nechirvan Barzani the prime minister of
Kurdistan region
defended his self-governing
region's oil deals with international companies,
saying the agreements were not an attempt to usurp
the nation's oil resources but a way to make them
work for all the people of Iraq.
"Many in the Iraqi Oil Ministry are locked in a time
warp dating back to the regime of Saddam Hussein, in
which Baghdad holds tight control of all the
resources of Iraq and uses these resources to create
obeisance and loyalty to the center," Barzani said.
www.ekurd.net
The latest contracts bring to 15 the number of deals
finalised by the Kurdish regional government since
it passed its own oil law in August.
The regional administration said 85 percent of the
returns from the foreign deals would be for Iraq and
the rest would go to the contractor.
The Kurdistan government's minister for natural
resources, Ashti Hawrami, said last week that with
the signing of the latest contracts, 20
international oil companies are now working in the
region.
He said talks were ongoing with foreign firms over
24 new oil blocks in the oil-rich north and that
announcements would be made soon.
But Shahristani warned that foreign firms which sign
contracts with the Kurds risk being blacklisted by
Iraq.
"Our position is that any company that signs a
contract without the approval of the federal
authority will compromise their chances of getting
business in future in Iraq," he said.
The Iraqi hydrocarbons law is stalled before
parliament due to bitter differences between warring
political factions over the sharing of lucrative
revenues from the crude, the third-largest proven
reserves in the world.
The bill opens up the long state-dominated oil and
gas sector to foreign investment and assures that
receipts will be shared equally between Iraq's 18
provinces, a measure Washington regards as key to
unite the rival communities.
www.ekurd.net
Shahristani however said that "for the time being,
Iraq does not need production-sharing agreements" to
increase its oil output.
He said Iraq is currently exporting more than two
million barrels a day.
AFP
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