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Iraqi Kurdistan flex muscles over black
gold reserves
19.11.2007
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November 19, 2007
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', -- Despite
a veto from Baghdad, Iraqi Kurds have
signed contracts
with foreign firms to exploit their huge oil
reserves which they vow will benefit the whole
country.
Strengthened by the autonomy enshrined in the Iraqi
constitution, the Iraqi Kurdish authority launched a
regional oil policy in August, signing deals with
overseas companies, to first achieve
self-sufficiency and later exportation.
The authority has signed 20 contracts during the
last three months and shows no sign of changing
course, despite threats from the federal government
to blacklist companies trading with the Kurdish
region.
"Iraq has more than 12 percent of the world's crude
oil reserves, of which at least five percent is in
our region," said Kiwan Siwaily, advisor to Kurdish
oil minister Ashti Hawrami.
"The old Iraqi regimes since the 1920s didn't allow
us to develop these resources. No student was
allowed to study in the oil and gas sector," added
Siwaily, just recently back from Germany with a
degree in this field. www.ekurd.net
In the 1970s, gigantic oil fields were discovered in
Iraqi Kurdish region but failed to be fully
explored. They were never exploited during the reign
of Saddam, hostile to the Kurds who resisted his
authority.
Since the end of his regime in April 2003, the
reserves attracted the attention of international
oil sector representatives who travelled to the main
city Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan region 'Iraq'
"To export, we have to talk to the central
government. But for our domestic use, we don't have
to ask anyone. It belongs to us. It's our country,"
said Siwaily.
"We're now producing 20,000 barrels a day. We need
100,000 for our domestic use alone. It's our oil,
it's our right."
The federal parliament has been attempting to hammer
out a deal regarding national oil policy and to
negotiate the delicate issue of sharing resources
between the regions.
The Shiite majority in the south and Kurdish
majority in the north have plentiful oil reserves.
But the Sunnis in central Iraq have little oil and
insist policy is centralised through Baghdad, an
approach not shared by the Kurdish regional
authorities but backed by Washington.
US authorities want the oil revenues to be shared
equally among the 18 provinces of Iraq, especially
the Sunnis in a bid to wipe out the Sunni-led
insurgency against its troops.
Commenting on the oil contracts signed in Erbil on
November 7, Hawrami said: "In Kurdistan, we are
setting the example: this is only the first
post-Saddam framework for oil investment in Iraq
that follows the democratic, federal, and
free-market principles mandated by the Iraqi
constitution."
The Kurdish authorities are attempting to reassure
Baghdad and the other communities that they are
happy with rules that restrict them to retaining
only the 17 percent of export earnings.
At the federal level, this figure of 17 percent is
also the portion of the national budget granted to
the Kurdistan region.
"We know that if we want to export anything, we'll
have to share: 17 percent for us only," said Siwaily.
"We have no problem with that."
"They are still discussing this oil law at the
federal level. It could take them another two or
three years. We're not going to wait. We have lost
enough time already. www.ekurd.net
"Here, we have enough oil and gas for all the Middle
East. It's our oil, our country. You'll see, we
don't need more than two or three years to develop
everything and cover our domestic needs."
Among the contracts recently signed, is one for a
gas collection and a refinery to supply the
electricity stations, which experts says make the
problem of regional power cuts a distant memory.
AFP
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