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Kurdistan's leaders reach oil-law deal
with Baghdad
18.4.2008
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April 18, 2008
Iraq's central government and the Kurdistan region
have reached a deal on an oil law, including a
method for weighing the validity of the oil deals
the Kurds have signed with foreign firms, the top
government spokesman said Wednesday.
Ali al-Dabbagh said an agreement also has been
reached on the classification and funding for the
Kurds' security forces, the Peshmerga, which will
become a battalion within the Iraqi Ministry of
Defense. And he said the sides agreed to allow the
U.N. process for determining the future of oil-rich
Kirkuk and other disputed territories to play out.
"There is an understanding between the central
government and the regional government for the oil
law," Mr. al-Dabbagh said in a telephone interview
from Brussels, where Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
is meeting with EU officials.
Mr. al-Maliki's governing coalition has seen
defections and opposition growing over the past
year. Mr. al-Dabbagh said political parties have
recently pledged support,www.ekurd.net
and meetings in Baghdad
with top Kurdistan Regional Government officials
have led to "a new atmosphere."
The oil law and oil deals have been a source of
contention in Iraq's political and civil society.
Opponents of the Kurdish deals are led by national
Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani. The oil law has
seen many versions and incarnations, each with
steadfast supporters and opponents.
This has led to fits and starts in moving forward a
law establishing the post-Saddam Hussein rules for
governance of Iraq's oil and gas sector — including
four versions stalled in parliament's Energy
Committee — that will decide the flashpoint issues
of central or decentralized control over the oil
strategy and to what extent foreign oil companies
will be allowed a role in the nationalized oil
sector.
Mr. al-Dabbagh said the agreement is on the version
of the oil law approved by key Kurdish and central
government leaders in February 2007. But the deal
was foiled by an Oil Ministry decision to classify
Iraq's discovered oil fields and exploration blocks,
detailing authority for development between the
central government and producing provinces and
regions in a manner with which the Kurds disagreed.
It was further altered by the Shura Council, a
legislative review body, which led to increased
tension and multiple versions.
Meanwhile, the Kurds made unilateral moves in the
prospective oil sector in their three-province
region.
The Kurdish government has been ahead of the rest of
Iraq in political, economic and security evolution
because of the no-fly zone created following the
1991 Persian Gulf war. Since 2004 the Kurdish
government has signed more than 20 deals to explore
for and develop oil and gas.
Most were signed last year, as was a regional oil
law, prompting Mr. al-Shahristani to increase his
criticism to outright condemnation. He called the
deals illegal and has so far made good on a threat
to blacklist any firms that sign Kurd oil deals from
gaining contracts for the rest of Iraq.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
UPI . See also
Deal made on Kurd oil, Kirkuk
16.4.2008
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