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Iraqi Kurdistan region says new oil deals
are legal
30.9.2007
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September
30, 2007
DUBAI, -- Iraq's Kurdistan regional
government (KRG) said on Friday that oil and gas
deals it has signed since February are legal,
rejecting Baghdad's claim that the deals breach the
country's law.
Iraq's cabinet agreed a draft law for dividing the
world's third-largest oil reserves in February, but
rows with the KRG, as well as objections from some
Shi'ite and Sunni Arab politicians have slowed its
progress.
Frustrated by Baghdad's delays, the semi-autonomous
KRG approved its own oil law in August and announced
this month it had signed a production-sharing
contract with a unit of U.S.-based Hunt Oil Co. and
with Impulse Energy Corp. In April the KRG signed a
service contract with the United Arab Emirate's Dana
Gas. |
Khaled Salih, The official spokesman for the
Kurdistan region government |
"The Hunt contract was signed...according to the
enacted regional law based on the federal
constitution. There is no question about the
legality of that or any other deal," KRG government
spokesman Khaled Salih said in a statement sent to
Reuters by e-mail.
It would be unconstitutional for Baghdad to punish
the companies that had signed deals with the
semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in the 'north of
Iraq', Salih said.
"How can any serious government official think they
are in a position to punish any company working in
Iraq legally to contribute to the country's revenue
for the benefit of the whole country?," Salih said.
Iraq's Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said on
Monday that deals signed since February were
illegal, and warned that the firms involved "will
bear the consequences."
Shahristani also said that crude from the deals
could not be legally exported, as under the draft
oil law only Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organisation
(SOMO) held the right to export.
But Salih said the draft oil law gave no such
exclusive right to SOMO.
Salih said that companies with an interest in the
Kurdish oil and gas industry were no longer
discouraged by Shahristani's statements. Oil majors
have to date shown little interest in the Kurdish
region, as they fear by alienating Baghdad they may
miss out on potentially more lucrative contracts
elsewhere in Iraq.
"In the early days people took the statements
seriously," Salih said. "Several oil companies
informed us about the discouragement and implied
threats of doing business in Kurdistan. However, as
time passed... it seems to us that people are no
longer deterred by such statements from Dr
Shahristani."
Reuters
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