Iraq Urged To Have Oil Law: Report

Iraq Urged To Have Oil Law: Report



Posted: April 25, 2012


Tuesday, 24 April 2012

A recent report called on oil companies and the international
community to not make any agreements on disputed territories in Iraq,
adding that time was running out to reach a solution for both Iraq’s
Kurds and the government in Baghdad.

The latest International Crisis Group report “Iraq and the Kurds: The
High-Stakes Hydrocarbons Gambit,” released on April 19, called on the
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Baghdad government to resume
negotiations on the status of disputed internal boundaries and a federal
hydrocarbons law.

“Time is running out as unilateral, mutually harmful moves push
relations to breaking point,” said Joost Hiltermann, ICG’s Middle East
Deputy Program Director in a written statement. The report cited the
example of oil giant ExxonMobil, which drew Baghdad’s ire for signing a
deal with the KRG in the country’s north. ExxonMobil might have
calculated that it could help bring both Baghdad and Erbil to the table,
but it failed to do so, said the report. The report also called on all
oil companies to refrain from signing contracts with either the
government of Iraq or the KRG for acreage located in disputed
territories, and suspend all operations in disputed territories until
the status of internal disputed boundaries has been resolved.

The report also advised the U.S. to announce its policy of advising
international oil and gas companies not to sign contracts in Iraq’s
disputed territories. The report also called on the Baghdad government
and Turkey to avoid inflammatory rhetoric to each other. It also called
on Ankara to continue to emphasize Turkey’s interest in the unity of
Iraq and to engage with the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
government and the KRG, in order to assist them in coming to an
agreement over an oil law.

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