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Kurdistan ready for talks with Iraq over crisis, oil: deputy PM |
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Kurdistan ready for talks with Iraq over
crisis, oil: deputy PM
31.8.2012 |
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August 31, 2012
BAGHDAD,— Iraq's Kurdistan is ready
to restart negotiations with Baghdad to end their
crisis, focusing on a long-delayed oil law to hand
regions more say in managing energy resources,
Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Roj Nouri Shawais, a
Kurd, said.
The positive tone from Shawais signalled the Shi'ite-led
central government and self-governed Kurdistan may
be edging towards resolving their dispute over oil,
territory and power-sharing that is straining Iraq's
uneasy federal union.
Shawais told Reuters Kurdistan believes part of the
dispute can be ended by passing an amended 2007
draft of an oil and gas law, which all parties had
agreed to as part of broader power-sharing among
Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish blocks.
"Approving this draft and adding some amendments
which are agreed on by all parties ... is the proper
way to resolve this," the deputy prime minister, one
of the go-betweens for talks between Baghdad and
Kurdistan, said in an interview.
Shawais said Kurdish officials had met with the head
of the Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite
National Alliance, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, for
preliminary talks, and the atmosphere had improved
enough for them to see room for progress.
Kurdistan has tested Baghdad's resolve for months by
signing deals with foreign oil majors, such as Exxon
and Chevron,www.ekurd.net
contracts the central government rejects as illegal
and part of a Kurdish push for more autonomy.
Their dispute is complicating a crisis in Iraq's
fragile power-sharing central government, which was
hobbled by infighting among Sunni, Shi'ite and
Kurdish parties even before the last U.S. troops
left in December.
Kurdish leaders and the Sunni-backed Iraqiya party
often accuse Maliki of sidelining them and say the
Shi'ite leader is amassing power at their expense.
His backers say the premier's partners in
power-sharing are trying to unseat him.
THREATS AND TALKS
Baghdad and the Kurdish capital Erbil are currently
fighting over exports. Kurdistan has threatened to
stop its share of national oil exports at the start
of September, claiming Baghdad is not fulfilling
payments to companies working there.
Iraq says Kurdish authorities have not supplied the
correct paperwork and receipts for an audit of
payments.
Adoption of a new oil and gas law has long been
considered critical to the success of Iraq's rapidly
developing oil sector, although Baghdad has signed
multibillion-dollar contracts with global oil majors
despite antiquated legal safeguards.
Last year, Maliki and Kurdistan agreed by December
2011 they would either amend the 2007 hydrocarbons
law as agreed by all political factions or adopt the
2007 law as is. But that deadline past without
agreement.
The 2007 draft gives regional powers partial
authority over their reserves, and Maliki advisors
have said in the past they would prefer that version
because time was running short.
Autonomous since 1991, Iraq's Kurdistan runs its own
government and armed forces, but relies on the
central government for a percentage of the country's
oil revenues from the national budget.
Shawais said Kurdish officials believe signing
exploration contracts with oil majors without
Baghdad's permission is a constitutional right.
Disputes flared because Baghdad relied on old oil
laws from Saddam Hussein's era centralizing control,
he said.
"The controversy comes from this point, relying on
old laws while looking for a new law in line with
the constitution," the Kurdish politician said.
By Suadad al-Salhy - Reuters
Copyright ©, respective author or news agency,
Reuters
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