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Will BP achieve Kirkuk's Baba oil field
developments?
20.4.2012
By Alan Rawand
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ekurd.net |
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April
20, 2012
Few days ago I read an article on ekurd.net under
the title “Iraq
wants British BP to revive northern Kirkuk oilfield”,
I would like to explain and provide some corrections
on the article .
The article has mentioned that there are 3
structures that kirkuk’s oil field consists of which
is correct, they are Khurmala, Baba and Avana.
What the article has pointed is that, only Khurmala
structure is under Kurdistan government’s control
and jurisdiction which is wrong and i will prove
this claim wrong.
First of all In June 2009 for instance, the Oil
Ministry offered Kirkuk up for auction in its first
bidding round for international energy firms. Shell,
Sinopec, and Turkish Petroleum put together an
offer, but couldn’t come to terms with the
government. Then, just as now, the Kurds threatened
to not provide protection at the field if it didn’t
have a say in the Baba field’s development.
Kurdistan Regional Government KRG claimed that if
any deals were signed, it would violate the
constitution. This is the same stance that the KRG
is taking today.
Secondly, one of the Kirkuk's oil field structures
known as Avana, lies in Makhmour district, this town
was out of KRG’s administration borders prior to
2003, but after the liberation of Iraq by the
coalition forces, Peshemrga forces moved in and have
been securing the region until today, the government
administrations of the district are all run directly
by KRG, so is its borders controlled by Peshmerga
forces .In Oct 2011, Massoud Barzani Kurdistan
region President paid a visit to the district, in a
conference Barzani announced “ Makhmour is a part of
Kurdistan region and does not fall under the
disputed areas of article 140 in the Iraqi
constitution”
Thus we can clearly see, that Avana structure falls
under KRG’s full control and jurisdictions, plus the
oil giant ExxonMobil has won the block as a part of
the contract it has signed with KRG, a move that
angered Baghdad and led into calling the contracts
‘illegal’ by Shahristani.
Also when Barzani visited Washington early this
month in April, after meeting with Exxon CEO Rex
Tillerson, Rex said “we will honor the contracts we
have signed with KRG and see her as our great
partner”.
Baghdad’s continuous heroics towards KRG oil
contracts with the foreign oil companies, have been
nothing but a cover up for the failures in
developing Iraq's energy sector, there are currently
only 4 hours of electricity power per day in Iraq
while in kurdistan region it has topped 24 hours
recently with plans for an additional 500 MW in
summer to be added onto the national power grids.
Alan Rawand, an independent
Kurdish thinker and activist currently residing in
Sydney, Australia, exclusive for Ekurd.net
Copyright © 2012 ekurd.net. All rights reserved
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