Baghdad, Kurdish region at odds over foreign oil contracts
BAGHDAD — The government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki has
come under renewed pressure to annul crude oil contracts signed by the
autonomous Kurdish region.
Officials said Al Maliki has come under pressure from within his party
to stop the 15 oil exploration contracts by the Kurdish Regional Government
with 20 foreign companies. They said the contracts violate Iraqi law and
could lead to chaos, Middle East Newsline reported.
Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani has warned that any foreign oil
contractor in KRG would be barred from the rest of Iraq. Most of Iraq's oil
reserves have been in the south near Basra.
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On Nov. 26, 60 Iraqi oil sector executives announced their support of
Shahristani's position against the KRG. In a letter to parliament, the
executives asserted that the KRG oil deals lacked any "legal or political
standing whatsoever."
So far, KRG has ignored the threats. KRG Oil Minister Ashti Hawrami
plans to visit the United States where he said he would sign
exploration-and-production contracts with 20 foreign companies by the first
half of 2008.
