LONDON — The autonomous region of Kurdistan has expressed readiness
to share crude oil revenues with the rest of Iraq.
Kurdistan Natural Resources Minister Ashti Hawrami said the regional
government plans to draft an oil bill over the next few weeks that would
share revenues with the rest of the country, Middle East Newsline reported.
But the bill would grant
Kurdistan the sole right to develop resources in the northern Iraqi
province.
"Control of the new fields is the exclusive right of the regions and we
are not going to budge on that," Hawrami said. "We will control them 100
percent. We have no intention of withholding revenue from the central
government. We will not take a dollar extra than our fair share, but we
expect our fair share."
In a London briefing to potential investors last week, Hawrami said the
Kurdistan government intends to reach agreement with foreign companies
during October 2006. The government has already signed accords with
companies from Canada, Norway and Turkey to develop oil reserves in
Kurdistan.