Iraq's oil ownership to be decided soon By Andrea R. Mihailescu UPI Energy Correspondent Published July 25, 2005
WASHINGTON -- As the looming Aug. 15 deadline approaches for a new constitution, ambiguity remains on the ownership and management of Iraq's vast oil resources.
"A draft will be presented to the National Assembly in the first week of August," Sheik Humam al-Hammoudi, chairman of the constitutional drafting committee, told a news conference in Baghdad last week. "After it is discussed and final changes are made, 5 million copies will be distributed to households on Aug. 15."
Al-Hammoudi said there is agreement on fundamental issues such as basic principles, rights, duties and freedoms but not on oil.
The Iraqi Regional Governments and Governorates subcommittee, one of six such groups set up to draft the constitution following January's National Assembly elections, debated ownership and management of Iraqi oil resources but failed to reach a consensus.
Members of the team have drawn up three different versions, which will be submitted later this week to the full 71-member drafting committee.
One of the three versions say Iraqi natural resources should be managed by the federal government, which would be responsible for the distribution of oil revenues among the regions and governorates, according to specific percentages to be defined by law.
The second option stipulates that oil and gas resources would be managed by the federal government in coordination with the regional governments and governorates, with the central government again distributing revenues according to legal definitions.
The last option remains the most controversial. Kurdish members of the subcommittee insisted that the draft constitution should state that Iraq's natural resources are owned by the people of the regions, regional governments should be responsible for their management and that revenues should be distributed according to a set of percentages enshrined in the constitution. The proposed percentages are 5 percent for the producing governorates, 65 percent for regional governments and 30 percent for the federal government.
There is currently one defined regional government, in Kurdistan in northern Iraq, though its final borders have yet to be agreed upon. In southern Iraq, several governorates are teaming up including the southern oil capital of Basra and the governorates of Missan and Nasiriyah to create a new regional government.
"The constitutional committee will either adopt one of the three versions or it will come up with a new one acceptable to all," the member of the drafting committee said.
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