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Iraqi Kurds to take up own oil law
31.7.2007
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July
31, 2007
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan region (Iraq), --
Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) will take
up its own oil law Tuesday morning as it moves
forward on economic development in the northern
Kurdistan region.
A KRG official said the regional parliament will
begin debate on a law that will set guidelines for
developing the oil and natural gas reserves.
The law is less controversial than a federal oil
law, stalled in negotiations and likely not to be
debated in the Iraqi parliament in Baghdad before it
takes the August recess. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki,
pressed by the United States, has been urging the
parliament to approve the law.
Various factions are at odds over how much authority
the central government should have over exploring,
developing and producing Iraq's oil and gas versus
the regional and provincial governments. They also
can't agree on how much access foreign oil companies
should have.
The issue is so divisive workers may strike and
political parties pull out of the government. The
Kurds have pressed for the law, as it would set the
stage for Iraq as a whole, and their region
specifically. The KRG area is relatively violence
free and its economy has boomed compared to the rest
of the country.
Last week the KRG parliament was unable to take up
the law after some parties wanted to delay it,
either to delve into the draft law more thoroughly
or to give Baghdad time to act.
"We'll start our sessions with a debate on the draft
law on oil and gas next week without any crucial
differences among the parliamentary blocs," Othman
Bani Marani, a leading member from the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan, told the Voices of Iraq news
agency.
The parliament was to be
on break from July 1 to Sept. 1, but
resumed a special session on the issue.
UPI
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