Friday, May 11, 2007
Kurdish officials to meet central government over draft oil law
Oil
(Reuters) - Senior Iraqi Kurdish officials will travel to Baghdad next week hoping to end an impasse with the central government over a draft oil law to share revenues from the world's third-largest oil reserves. Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani, speaking ahead of the meeting in Egypt in which industrialised powers pressed reforms in Iraq in exchange for aid, told reporters in Saudi Arabia last week that Kurds were "very happy" with the draft law and that all the groups had agreed to pass it by the end of May.
But an oil industry source told Reuters on Thursday the bill was in a state body charged with drafting legislation, and that Kurds still had misgivings over annexes they say would wrest oilfields from regions and place them under a new state-oil firm. Iraq's Kurdish Prime Minister Nejruvan Barzani said he will lead a high-level delegation of Kurdish officials to discuss the annexes with the central government next week.
"Next week, new negotiations will start over the appendixes to the oil law and the revenue distribution law. I will participate in a large part of these negotiations," Barzani told reporters in the northern city of Arbil late on Wednesday. "The Kurds had a big role in writing the draft of the suggested oil law. I am optimistic in resolving the disputes."
Barzani has insisted that Kurds want to include a separate law on oil revenue management that would set up a Kurdish fund. The central government has said it wants revenues put in a central account and distributed according to Iraq's population. Iraq's Deputy Prime minister Barham Salih, the chief architect of the draft oil law, told Reuters in an interview earlier this month he was confident a draft oil law would be approved in parliament after officials from the central government and Kurdistan meet to iron out differences.
But an oil industry source told Reuters on Thursday the bill was in a state body charged with drafting legislation, and that Kurds still had misgivings over annexes they say would wrest oilfields from regions and place them under a new state-oil firm. Iraq's Kurdish Prime Minister Nejruvan Barzani said he will lead a high-level delegation of Kurdish officials to discuss the annexes with the central government next week.
"Next week, new negotiations will start over the appendixes to the oil law and the revenue distribution law. I will participate in a large part of these negotiations," Barzani told reporters in the northern city of Arbil late on Wednesday. "The Kurds had a big role in writing the draft of the suggested oil law. I am optimistic in resolving the disputes."
Barzani has insisted that Kurds want to include a separate law on oil revenue management that would set up a Kurdish fund. The central government has said it wants revenues put in a central account and distributed according to Iraq's population. Iraq's Deputy Prime minister Barham Salih, the chief architect of the draft oil law, told Reuters in an interview earlier this month he was confident a draft oil law would be approved in parliament after officials from the central government and Kurdistan meet to iron out differences.
Labels: Barham Salih, draft oil law, Hussain al-Shahristani, KRG, Nejruvan Barzani
