Senior Iraqi Kurdish officials will travel to
Baghdad next week hoping to end an impasse with the
central government.
May 10, 2007
Senior Iraqi Kurdish officials will travel to
Baghdad next week hoping to end an impasse with the
central government over a draft oil law to share
revenues from the world's third-largest oil
reserves.
Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, under
pressure to push through key legislation Washington
says is vital to healing sectarian divisions among
Iraq's sects and ethnic groups, told an
international economic conference on Iraq last week
that the bill had been submitted to parliament for
approval.
Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani, also speaking
ahead of the meeting in Egypt in which
industrialised powers pressed reforms in Iraq in
exchange for aid, told reporters in Saudi Arabia
last week that Kurds were "very happy" with the
draft law and that all the groups had agreed to pass
it by the end of May. |
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister
Nechirvan Barzani. |
Iraqi Prime minister Jawad Nuri al-Maliki
Photo:AP |
|
But an oil industry source told Reuters on Thursday
the bill was in a state body charged with drafting
legislation, and that Kurds still had misgivings
over annexes they say would wrest oilfields from
regions and place them under a new state-oil firm.
Iraq's Kurdistan Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani
said he will lead a high-level delegation of Kurdish
officials to discuss the annexes with the central
government next week.
"Next week, new negotiations will start over the
appendixes to the oil law and the revenue
distribution law. I will participate in a large part
of these negotiations," Barzani told reporters in
the northern city of Arbil late on Wednesday.
"The Kurds had a big role in writing the draft of
the suggested oil law. I am optimistic in resolving
the disputes."
An oil law is vital to securing foreign investment
to boost Iraq's oil output and rebuild its
war-ravaged economy.
But divisive issues not formalised when cabinet
passed the law in February, such as how revenues
would be shared and who would gain control of
discovered but undeveloped oilfields, has delayed
its approval.
Barzani has insisted that Kurds want to include a
separate law on oil revenue management that would
set up a Kurdish fund.
The central government has said it wants revenues
put in a central account and distributed according
to Iraq's population.
Most of Iraq's proven oil reserves are in the
Shi'ite south and in the Kurdish north.
A fair distribution of the oil wealth is vital for
national reconciliation because Sunni Arabs, who
live in areas with no oil in central and western
Iraq, fear a bad deal would cut them off from any
windfall. Sunni Arabs are the backbone of the
insurgency.
Iraq's Deputy Prime minister Barham Salih, the chief
architect of the draft oil law, told Reuters in an
interview earlier this month he was confident a
draft oil law would be approved in parliament after
officials from the central government and Kurdistan
meet to iron out differences.
Reuters
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