Thursday, September 28, 2006
KRG, Iraqi Oil Minister dispute Kurdish oil contracts
Kurdistan, Oil
Iraq's Kurdish regional government raised the threat of secession on Wednesday if the Baghdad government did not drop its claims to a say in the development of oil resources in their northern districts. In a strongly worded response to comments by the Iraqi oil minister, the premier of the autonomous Kurdistan region said he "resented" the remarks by Hussain al-Shahristani and accused him of trying to "sabotage" foreign investment in Kurdish oil.
"The people of Kurdistan chose to be in a voluntary union with Iraq on the basis of the constitution," Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said in a statement on his official Web site. "If Baghdad ministers refuse to abide by that constitution, the people of Kurdistan reserve the right to reconsider our choice." Barzani said he was responding to an interview Shahristani gave to a Baghdad newspaper this week in which he restated the view of the Oil Ministry that recent contracts signed by the Kurdish regional government with foreign firms to develop oilfields in the area were subject to the ministry's review.
"The people of Kurdistan chose to be in a voluntary union with Iraq on the basis of the constitution," Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said in a statement on his official Web site. "If Baghdad ministers refuse to abide by that constitution, the people of Kurdistan reserve the right to reconsider our choice." Barzani said he was responding to an interview Shahristani gave to a Baghdad newspaper this week in which he restated the view of the Oil Ministry that recent contracts signed by the Kurdish regional government with foreign firms to develop oilfields in the area were subject to the ministry's review.
Shahristani, from the dominant Shi'ite Islamist bloc in the national unity government, has said he favours strengthening central control of Iraq's oil, although a new constitution gives autonomous federal regions a role in developing such resources. The issue of just how powers are divided between Baghdad and the regions is at the heart of a bitter sectarian and ethnic dispute. The government is drafting legislation to clarify how oil investment and revenues should be shared with a view to encouraging foreign investment to develop its vast resources.
