National - Baghdad in talks with Kurds over oil contracts 1-May-08 [16:40]
Agencies-- Baghdad was in talks with the Iraqi Kurdish regional authorities last week on contracts signed by foreign oil companies in the territory, Iraq’s Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani told reporters last Monday.
“There has been a delegation led by the prime minister of the KRG [Kurdistan Regional Government] in Baghdad and we have started our discussions”, Shahristani said on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum in Rome. “We will continue those discussions after my return to Baghdad”, he added.
The contracts “have to meet the conditions of the hydrocarbons law of February 2007”, the minister insisted, referring to a new law aimed at encouraging foreign oil companies to invest in the Iraqi oil sector.
The government in Baghdad and authorities in the autonomous Kurdish region of Northern Iraq have been at loggerheads over contracts signed between the Kurds and foreign oil companies for months.
In November, Shahristani announced he had cancelled around 15 oil contracts signed by the authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan.
In response, Kurdish Prime Minister Neshirvan Barzani insisted the contracts would be honored, saying “nobody can cancel contracts signed by Kurdistan”, as his government approved the signature of seven more oil contracts.
The autonomous Kurdish regional government in Northern Iraq has signed 15 exploration and export contracts with 20 international companies since it passed its own oil law last August, irritating the Baghdad government.
Shahristani has repeatedly said he considers the contracts “illegal.”
He has threatened the companies concerned that they would not in future have the chance to work with the Iraqi government, threats that have so far have not been carried out.
