KurdistanObserver.com
Iraq's Parliament
to Discuss Oil Draft law
Reuters
April 19, 2007
Dubai: Iraq's cabinet will present a much-awaited oil law to parliament next
week, the country's oil minister said yesterday, but the Kurdish region rejected
aspects of the emerging legislation.
An oil law is vital for Iraq to attract investments by foreign firms to boost
its oil output and shore up its economy.
"It will be ready next week to be presented to parliament," Hussain Al
Shahristani told reporters in the UAE, where 60 Iraqi parliamentarians and
experts met to discuss the war-torn country's law that will give its regions the
right to negotiate with global firms on developing oilfields.
He said that all political blocs in parliament had agreed to try to pass the
law before the end of May, but the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) said
yesterday it would not sign up to some aspects of the law.
Al Shahristani said he expected no major amendments in the law, though some
minor changes were possible.
But Ashti Hawrami, minister of natural resources in the semi-autonomous
Kurdish region in northern Iraq told Reuters that annexes to the draft oil law
that aim to wrest oilfields from regional governments and place them in the
hands of a newly formed state-oil company were unconstitutional.
"The annexes as they are written now will not be accepted by the KRG,"
Hawrami said. "If I don't get the lion's share of fields (in the region) then
it's a bad law. If the law dilutes regional control then it is
unconstitutional."
"This law has to be in harmony with the constitution and if it doesn't then
it must be thrown in the trash," Hawrami added.
Al Shahristani said the Kurdish regional government should have made its
objections clear before the draft law was approved by the cabinet in February.
But he said that the appendices have not been studied in detail before the law
was passed.
"They should have come to the energy council and presented their views, these
appendices have been available for three months."
Role of foreign firms causes controversy
- Al Shahristani said the draft law would be presented in a bundle that would
include the oil and gas law, a law outlining the functions of the ministry of
oil, another for Iraq National Oil Company and a fourth for oil revenue
management.- The future role of foreign oil companies in Iraq has caused
controversy but Al Shahristani said such concern was unfounded.- Al Shahristani
said that model contracts would not be included in the draft law annexes. The
federal council for oil and gas would develop those contracts later.
