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Interview: Qubad Talabani on oil law
development
13.7.2007
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July
13, 2007
WASHINGTON, -- Although Iraqi Kurds are now
opposing changes made to a draft oil law, their top
envoy to Washington says there's time -- though not
without end -- to reach a compromise on key issues.
"I doubt we'll veto the law based on a few scattered
changes," Qubad Talabani, son of Iraqi President
Jalal Talabani and the Kurdistan Regional
government's representative to the United States,
told United Press International at his Washington
office. "However, we still need to ensure we stick
within the guidelines outlined in the constitution."
KRG and federal government delegates have been
negotiating since last summer the law governing the
world's third-largest oil reserves. At issue is how
much control the federal government has over
exploration, development and production of oil
versus the regions or governorates.
Last week the Council of Ministers approved a draft
of the law -- which had already been opposed by oil
technocrats, unions and Sunni parties seeking a
stronger central government arm -- and sent it to
Parliament. Sunni and some Shiite parties opposed to
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government are
alternately threatening to boycott Parliament or
return to oppose the law. |
Qubad Talabani is representative of the Kurdistan
Regional Government (KRG) to the United States |
"I think too many Iraqi officials are commenting on
the hydrocarbons law without fully reading it,"
Talabani said. The KRG was almost completely in
agreement with the law before the approval of the
council, which further changed it.
"Some substantive changes were made," Talabani said.
"Some language that we had put in has been taken
out. Now whether it has been taken out with
malicious intent or whether it has been taken out
because it was deemed not legal language is what
we're trying to determine."
A team from Baghdad has been in Kurdistan to discuss
the issues, which Talabani said would be ironed out
in talks, not bluster. "In a friendly atmosphere,
not raising a stink about it," he said.
Kurds take a somewhat hard line in talks about the
future of Iraq to ensure there's no repeat of their
pre-2003 treatment, where investment was kept from
them and the brutality of Saddam Hussein was in full
force. They've been semi-autonomous since 1992,
however, and are keen on retaining that, if not
strengthening it.
"It's concerns that we have that are a result of
history. And neglect. Mismanagement throughout its
history. It's made us as Kurds very insecure that
future governments in Iraq will mismanage the
resources," Talabani said.
He points to the Iraqi Constitution, approved in
2005, that requires the federal government to work
"with" regions and governorates to develop the oil
sector. Exactly how that takes shape is at the crux
of the federalism dispute.
Talabani said the oil law should be the instrument
to further flesh out the constitutional vagueness.
"We want to have a say in how the south is
developed, how the west is developed, how Baghdad is
developed," he said.
"If we are partners, if we are Iraqis, then we want
to be full partners. It's a fair request. It shows
our willingness to be part of this federal Iraq."
And vice versa with other factions in the country,
he said.
Iraq has 115 billion barrels of proven oil reserves,
nearly all located in the Shiite-controlled south or
Kurdish north (though a large oil field near the KRG
zone is considered a disputed territory). Iraq needs
investment in its sector to fix and modernize its
current infrastructure so it can increase
production. Last month Iraq averaged less than 2
million barrels per day, according to the global
energy information firm Platts, a drop from the
month prior and far below the 2.6 million bpd before
the war.
Opponents of the oil law want to limit the access of
foreign oil companies to Iraq's nationalized sector,
though the Kurds are pulling for more of a
free-market model.
The oil law is to be one of four laws in a general
hydrocarbons regime package. Iraq sent an average of
1.6 million bpd to market last year, bringing in
enough money to fund 93 percent of its federal
budget. A revenue-sharing law that will determine
how proceeds from Iraq's oil sales will be
redistributed throughout the country -- and how much
-- was agreed on by KRG and federal government
negotiators and sent to the Council of Ministers,
which has yet to take it up.
"The fact that we could overcome our differences and
come to an agreement on that means that the
prognoses for the other three components are good,"
Talabani said. Laws governing the Iraqi National Oil
Co. and the Ministry of Oil round out the
hydrocarbons package.
Meanwhile, the KRG makes progress on its own. It's
relatively less violent than the rest of the
country. Daily flights in and out of the capital,
Irbil, have increased and Talabani said he saw an
"entrepreneurial spirit" during his recent visit.
The KRG has signed five deals with foreign oil
companies, which the Iraq oil minister said will be
brought in line with the eventual federal oil law.
The KRG is moving forward with its own regional oil
law, also aligned with the federal law.
That's if the federal legislation is approved.
"It's difficult to say how long we will wait,"
Talabani said. "We know that this is part of a much
larger picture and we don't want to do something
that could upset the larger picture.
"We've been patient up until now. I think we'll
continue to be patient. We'll continue to be
pragmatic. We can't have an all-or-nothing policy
and we've seen this throughout the negotiations,
there are things that are going to upset us as
Kurds, there are things that are going to upset our
Arab brothers," he said.
UPI
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