Kurdistan Regional Government Says It's Not Seen Iraq Oil
Law
Jul 4, 2007
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The local government in Iraq's northern
region of Kurdistan said it had yet to see a draft hydrocarbon law approved by
the cabinet in Baghdad, possibly complicating passage of the landmark
legislation.
Parliament was expected to start debating the law on Wednesday, Shi'ite Prime
Minister Nuri al-Maliki told a news conference on Tuesday, describing the bill
as the "most important" law in Iraq.
Washington has pushed Iraq for months to speed up passage of the law and other
pieces of legislation, which are seen as vital to curbing sectarian violence and
healing deep divisions between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs.
But the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), a key party to the negotiations,
said it had neither seen nor approved the draft.
"We hope the cabinet is not approving a text with which the KRG disagrees
because this would violate the constitutional rights of the Kurdistan region,"
the KRG said in a statement obtained on Wednesday.
Iraq's cabinet originally approved the draft in February but faced stiff
opposition from the regional government in largely autonomous Kurdistan, which
felt it was getting a raw deal.
The law decides who controls the world's third-largest oil reserves, aims to
provide a legal framework for attracting foreign investment and sets up a new
state oil company to oversee the industry. The final draft has not been made
public.
The Kurds had previously said some of the law's annexes were unconstitutional
because they wrested oilfields from regional governments and placed them under
the new state oil firm.
Most reserves are in the Kurdish north and Shi'ite south, underscoring the need
for equitable distribution to ensure Sunni Arab provinces in central Iraq get a
fair share of revenue.
A companion law that covers revenue sharing would be approved by the cabinet
this week and submitted to parliament next week, Iraqi officials have said.
The Kurds approved the revenue-sharing component in June, agreeing to take 17
percent of all oil revenue.
Thamir Ghadhban, an energy adviser to Maliki, said on Tuesday that a new Federal
Oil and Gas Council would sort out the disputed annexes after parliament
approved the law.
The council would allow regions to negotiate with oil firms but the central
government would need to approve contracts, Iraqi officials in Baghdad have
said.
