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Iraq warns French oil firms on deals with
Kurdistan
20.6.2012 |
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Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain al-Shahristani.
Photo: AP
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June 20, 2012
BAGHDAD,— The deputy premier for energy
affairs on Wednesday warned French companies that
any contracts with Baghdad would be scrapped if they
signed deals with local or regional governments in
Iraq.
The autonomous Kurdistan region in north Iraq has
signed a number of oil contracts with foreign firms,
but the federal government considers them illegal
and insists all such deals must go through Baghdad.
Hussein al-Shahristani “warned French companies
working in the oil sector in Iraq against signing
contracts with (entities) other than the Iraqi
government,” during a meeting with French ambassador
Denis Gauer, the deputy premier's office said.
Shahristani asked Gauer to convey to the French
government that if any French firm signs “a contract
with the Kurdistan region or another local
government without the approval of the federal
government, this will mean the end of its contracts
in Iraq,” his spokesman Faisal Abdullah told AFP.
Shahristani had
previously said
that French oil giant Total would “be considered in
breach of Iraqi laws” if it signed any deals without
the approval of the Baghdad government.
Total chief executive Christophe de Margerie said
earlier this year that his firm was in talks over
potential deals with the three-province Kurdistan
region.
Total is part of a consortium along with China’s
CNPC and Malaysia’s Petronas seeking to ramp up
output at the Halfaya field in Iraq's southern
Maysan province,www.ekurd.net
which has proven reserves of about 4.1 billion
barrels.
Shahristani’s remarks on Wednesday come a day after
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s spokesman, Ali
Mussawi, said the premier believes a contract
between US oil giant ExxonMobil and the Kurdistan
region is dangerous and could lead to “breaking up
the unity of Iraq.”
Maliki last week requested that U.S. President
Barack Obama intervene to block the Exxon deal,
which the company signed with Kurdistan in October,
Mussawi said.
Iraqi Kurdistan has been locked in a standoff with
Baghdad for months, one of a series of intertwined
political crises which have escalated into calls for
Maliki to be removed from power.
Copyright ©, respective author or news agency, AFP
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