Iraqi Dinar Discussion Board

[Marcelno]

A different Iraq oil law approved

Council of Ministers end-around feuding factions – for now – and move to restart the national oil company with support of key political blocks.

Submitted by Ben Lando on Friday, 31 July 2009

By BEN LANDO, NIZAR LATIF and EMAN HAMED
Iraq Oil Report

BAGHDAD – Forget the oil law. Forget revenue sharing. It all comes down to getting the oil out of the ground, into the refineries or export pipelines.

This is done by Iraq’s state-owned oil companies, for now operating as subsections of the Oil Ministry.

But a law just approved by the Council of Ministers and sent to Parliament would remove at least one pair of the handcuffs of Saddam Hussein’s power grip on the oil sector and free the state companies from politics, to focus on the task at hand: developing the world’s third largest oil reserves into the powerhouse it should be.

“The objective of the establishment of this company is to increase oil production and development of oil fields, discovered and undiscovered,” said Abdul-Hadi al-Hassani, deputy chairman of the Parliament’s Oil, Gas & Natural Resources Committee and a member of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Dawa Party “This law will refresh Iraq’s oil economy and make it strong.”

He said the committee will start debate following the Ramadan vacation, which ends around Sept. 20.

“In many ways it is a vital instrument,” said Tariq Shafiq, the founding executive director of the original Iraqi National Oil Co. in 1964. “To have an INOC charter enacted is a step forward,” he said, though worried of its financial and political independence.

http://www.iraqoilreport.com/the-biz/a-different-iraq-oil-law-approved-2050/