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Iraq Draft Oil Measure Sent to Parliament 3.5.2007 |
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Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish legislator. Kurds are
unhappy with the percentage of underground oil
resources that would be controlled by the Iraqi
National Oil Company
May 3, 2007
BAGHDAD, -- Iraq's oil minister said the
country's draft oil law was submitted to parliament
on Wednesday, setting up potentially bitter
negotiations over the creation of a framework for
managing the country's vast petroleum supplies and
distributing oil revenue.
Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani told reporters
in Saudi Arabia that he believed the legislation
would be passed by the end of the month.
But some Iraqi parliament members expect a more
protracted struggle, as Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds
vie for shares of revenue from the world's
third-largest oil reserves.
The prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional
Government, Nechirvan Barzani, told Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki that Kurds would not accept the oil
law unless a piece of companion legislation, and
accompanying annexes detailing revenue distribution,
were amended.
The changes would allow the Kurds greater
concessions in developing oil fields in their
territory, according to Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish
legislator.
Kurds are unhappy with the percentage of underground
oil resources that would be controlled by the Iraqi
National Oil Company, effectively putting the
resources under national, rather than regional,
jurisdiction.
"The Kurds will not accept the law to be put before
the parliament as a first part and a second part --
it needs to be a package," Othman said. "The whole
problem is because this law was made in a hurry, and
the Americans were rushing everyone to do it. The
details haven't been discussed, that's why there's
no agreement."
Mehdi Hafedh, a parliament member and former
planning minister, said he believed that the Kurdish
opposition was determined but that eventually a
compromise solution would be reached. "I think that
the draft in principle can be a good basis for
discussion," he said.
washingtonpost com
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