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Interview: Iraq Kurd leader 'Qubad
Talabani' on oil law
10.5.2007 |
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Qubad
Talabani urges oil to free market
May 10, 2007
WASHINGTON, -- To Iraq's Kurdish leadership,
the issue of how to apportion the third-largest
pools of oil in the world is "a make-or-break deal"
for the country as a whole, a top official told.UPI.
"The oil issue for us is a red line.
It will signify our participation in Iraq or not,"
Qubad Talabani, son of Iraqi President Jalal
Talabani and the Kurdistan Regional Government's
representative to the United States, said in an
interview from his Washington office.
The KRG and the central Iraqi government reached a
deal in February on the hydrocarbons framework --
though not on other key companion bills -- and a
self-imposed deadline of late May seemed possible to
meet.
But the Iraqi Oil Ministry, at a meeting it set up
last month in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates,
with other Iraqi oil experts and politicians,
unveiled the annexes to the hydrocarbons law -- its
list distributing control of oil fields between
central and KRG control -- and a law re-establishing
the Iraq National Oil Co., which Kurdish leadership
automatically rejected. |
Qubad Talabani is representative of the Kurdistan
Regional Government (KRG) to the United States. |
"This sets us back to square one, a point that's
unacceptable to us. We're trying to modernize Iraq,
build a new Iraq, built on new foundations, new
policies. The symbol of this new Iraq will be how it
manages its oil infrastructure," Talabani said. "And
if people want to revert back to Saddam-era policies
of a state-controlled oil sector with no
accountability, with no accountability to the
Parliament or the people of the country, with no
oversight except from by one or two, then I'm sorry,
that is not the Iraq that the Kurds bought into.
That is not the Iraq that the Kurds would want to be
part of."
"If a centralized oil regime is imposed on us, we
will not participate in the state of Iraq," Talabani
said. "And we have to make it absolutely clear to
our friends in Washington, to our brothers in
Baghdad, this is a make-or-break deal for Iraq."
He said Iraq needs to embrace the free market and
break free from the nationalized mindset. Numerous
oil and Iraqi experts as well as key Iraq oil union
leaders have told UPI that Iraqis see nationalized
oil with pride. And opponents of the oil law also
say it gives too much to foreign companies.
The Kurds, however, have little to show from the
Saddam Hussein era, aside from persecution, death
and little investment in its economy or oil sector.
They gained autonomy in 1991 and, governing an
autonomous three-province region now, are
prospering. Airplanes fly internationally from the
airport in Irbil, Iraqi Kurdistan's capital.
Violence in the region is relatively nil compared
with the rest of the country, though the first major
attack in more than four years killed 14 people in
Irbil Wednesday. Despite lacking the law, the KRG
has signed multiple deals with foreign companies to
develop its oil and natural-gas sector.
Iraq only produces about 2 million barrels per day.
With investment -- domestic or foreign -- Iraq's 115
billion barrels in reserves could handle much higher
output.
Many of the arguments over the law are related to
the 2005 constitution. It was written vaguely to
garner support. Now there is a dispute as to which
oil fields are to be governed by the central
government and which by the regions.
Tariq Shafiq, an Iraq oil expert now living in
Amman, Jordan, and drafter of the original law last
summer, said the Iraq National Oil Co. should be
independent of the Oil Ministry, and regions could
choose the company's board of directors. (Shafiq has
since come out against the law, saying it has been
altered too much in negotiations.) He said Iraq
needs a central strategy for the best management of
the country's oil.
Talabani said the KRG favors an INOC limited in
scope and open to foreign investment, and says the
current law gives INOC control over 93 percent of
Iraq's oil. "This will hamper needed investment," he
said.
"It's only by bringing in the biggest and the best
from the international community, to partner with,
not to steal, but to partner with the Iraqi
government, can we develop Iraq's oil accordingly,"
Talabani said. "And there's a worrying unwillingness
to act under a free-market-style concept here. It
won't go through. It won't go through the Parliament
this way. There will be too many people opposed to
it."
Other bills needing to be passed include a
reorganization of the Oil Ministry and the
revenue-sharing law. Talabani said there were
lingering fears Kurds will again be deprived of
funds and investment.
"We want to create an automatic payment mechanism
where it doesn't rely on the goodwill of the finance
minister or the oil minister for the regions to get
their fair share," he said.
"Trust is lacking in Iraq, and unfortunately it's
been Iraq's miserable history that has created this
system, this society that mistrusts each other,
which is why something as critical as oil can be a
trust-building measure," Talabani said. "By putting
in place mechanisms and institutions that can ensure
that I will not get robbed again, that my resources
will not be used against me again, will eventually
over time build my trust."
UPI
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