Analysis: Iraq oil law a deal -- spokesman

Published: April 16, 2008

By BEN LANDO
UPI Energy Editor

WASHINGTON, April 16 (UPI) -- Iraq's central and Kurdish region governments have reached a deal on an oil law, including a method for weighing the validity of the oil deals the Kurds have signed with foreign firms, the top government spokesman told United Press International.

Ali al-Dabbagh said an agreement has also been made on the classification and funding for the Kurds' security forces, the Peshmerga, which will become a battalion within the Iraqi Ministry of Defense. And he said the sides agreed to allow the U.N. process for determining the future of oil-rich Kirkuk and other disputed territories to play out.

"There is an understanding between the central government and the regional government for the oil law," Dabbagh said in a telephone interview from Brussels, where Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is meeting with EU officials. Maliki's governing coalition has seen defections and opposition growing over the past year. Dabbagh said political parties have recently pledged support, and meetings in Baghdad with top Kurdistan Regional Government officials have led to "a new atmosphere."

The oil law and oil deals have been a source of contention in Iraq's political and civil society. Opponents of the KRG deals are led by National Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani. The oil law has seen many versions and incarnations, each with steadfast supporters and opponents.

This has led to fits and starts in moving forward a law establishing the post-Saddam Hussein rules for governance of Iraq's oil and gas sector -- including four versions stalled in the Parliament's Energy Committee -- that will decide the flashpoint issues of central or decentralized control over the oil strategy and to what extent foreign oil companies will be allowed a role in the nationalized oil sector.

Dabbagh said the agreement is on the version of the oil law approved by key KRG and central government leaders in February 2007. But the deal was foiled by an Oil Ministry decision to classify Iraq's discovered oil fields and exploration blocks, detailing authority for development between the central government and producing provinces and regions in a manner with which the Kurds disagreed.

It was further altered by the Shoura Council, a legislative review body, which led to increased tension and multiple versions.

Meanwhile the Kurds made unilateral moves in the prospective oil sector in their three-province region. The KRG is further in its political, economic and security evolution than the rest of Iraq because of the no-fly zone following the 1991 Gulf War. Since 2004 the KRG has signed more than 20 deals to explore for and develop oil and gas. Most were signed last year, as was a regional oil law, prompting Shahristani to increase his critique to outright condemnation. He called the deals illegal and has so far made good on a threat to blacklist any firms that sign Kurd oil deals from gaining contracts for the rest of Iraq.

None of the companies made the short list, announced Monday, of those allowed to submit bids in an upcoming round of oil and gas field tenders.

The February 2007 oil law draft establishes a federal oil and gas council that would serve as a policymaking body. Dabbagh said the council would decide national versus local control over oil and gas fields and exploration blocks, as well as the legitimacy of the KRG oil deals.

"This is going to be reviewed and is going to be checked whether they are workable with the new law or not," he said. "If not they should be amended in order to have them matching with the new regulation of the oil law."

He said a revenue-sharing law and legislation reconstituting the national oil company and reorganizing the Oil Ministry will "be passed simultaneously (with the oil law) and as a sort of compromise package."

There are still issues to iron out before an agreement is finalized, he said.

Kirkuk, the oil-rich area just outside the official KRG territory, is among land whose proper governance is disputed. The Kurds maintain it's historically theirs and say wrongs perpetrated by Saddam, such as forced removal and district redrawing, should be reversed. Arabs and Turkomen, among others, dispute the Kurds' claim. The 2005 constitution called for a referendum allowing the voters in the disputed territories to decide their future by the end of last year. Political and technical hurdles still have not been cleared. The United Nations in December brokered a six-month extension but will likely need more time. It's to announce a plan next month.

"Nothing has been agreed yet," Dabbagh said amid reports this issue was part of the Kurd-central government parley over the oil law.

The Council of Ministers must approve the law before it is passed to Parliament for final consideration, which is sure to include heightened debate and deliberation since there's not one view on either the decentralization or privatization issues. Many favor continuation of a central government-guided oil strategy with oil flow under Iraqi control.

The Peshmerga, the security force largely kept to the KRG area, will be funded based on "a certain principal," Dabbagh said. There had been a row over whether the KRG should fund the force from the revenue redistributed to it from the central government or from another source also from Baghdad. "It's going to be a support from the budget directly. ... There will be a certain battalion and division created in Kurdistan, it will be under the order of the Ministry of Defense."

http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Energy/Analysis/2008/04/16/analysis_iraq_oil_law_a_deal_--_spokesman/2656/

La loi sur le Pétrole et la Résistance en Irak

http://www.convergencedescauses.com/content/view/1208/

Extrait

21-02-2008

La loi sur le Pétrole, en discussion depuis plus d’une année, a été recalée par le Parlement irakien pour la quatrième fois malgré les amendements qui y ont été apportés.

Si elle était adoptée, elle fixerait irréversiblement l’éclatement du pays en provinces ou mini-États tribaux disposant librement de leurs ressources énergétiques.

Ce sont les députés kurdes qui estiment urgente l’adoption de cette loi sans laquelle selon eux les investissements étrangers ne seraient pas sécurisés et la reconstruction du pays impossible à mener.

AbdelHadi Al Hassani, président de la commission parlementaire pour le gaz et le pétrole explique l’empressement des Kurdes autonomistes à approuver sans plus tarder la loi de la tribalisation en raison des contrats déjà signés avec des firmes étrangères mais invalides pour Baghdad car c’est au gouvernement fédéral de gérer l’industrie pétrolière.

Le ministère a d’ores et déjà gelé les exportations pour la firme sud-coréenne SK Energy et pour La firme autrichienne Austria’s OMV AG considérant les contrats les liant à la province kurde comme illégaux.Plus de soixante dix compagnies pétrolières (http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=49586) se sont inscrites pour entrer dans la compétition de l’exploitation des ressources déjà recensées et prospecter pour ouvrir d’autres champs.

L’Irak détient la troisième réserve mondiale en pétrole après l ‘Arabie et l’Iran.

À 100 dollars le baril, il est aisé de comprendre combien elles piaffent de se partager le butin.

Top Iraq MP: Constitution fix then oil law

WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 (UPI) --

Political disputes over Iraq's Constitution need to be resolved before progress on the oil law, said the deputy head of the Parliament's Energy Committee."This will make the way to pass the law of oil and gas," Abdul-Hadi al-Hasani told United Press International in a phone interview from London.

"It will be very easy to be passed because we won't have any disagreements. Roadblocks now are not technical, they are political."

Iraq's Constitution was written vague enough to garner enough support for passage in 2005, but the lines of control over Iraq's oil sector and other issues of federalism are now unclear.

Iraq's Kurds support a more decentralized version than most parties in the national government, and both claim the Constitution backs their position.

An oil law has been under negotiations for more than a year. Hasani said his committee, which is to vet a version to be voted on by the entire Parliament, was given four different versions.

At issues is not only varying interpretations over oil control, but how international oil firms will be given access to the currently nationalized Iraq oil sector -- the third largest in the world.

Experts predict there's much more oil -- perhaps double the 115 billion barrels of proven reserves -- to be discovered once Iraq is fully explored. Iraq has sizeable gas reserves and potential is great as well.

Iraq's Kurds, frustrated by Baghdad's deadlock, passed their own regional oil law and signed dozens of controversial production-sharing contracts.

Iraq Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani has called them illegal, saying it is the national government's job to sign such deals.

He has threatened companies that signed with the Kurdistan Regional Government will be blacklisted from upcoming bidding rounds for fields in the rest of the country.
SK Energy of South Korea and Austria's OMV have already been cut off from Iraqi crude supplies.

The oil law is part of a package of legislation, which includes laws governing the collecting and redistribution of all revenues, the reorganization of the Oil Ministry and the reconstitution of the Iraqi National Oil Co.Hasani said it's important to equip and train INOC to be a modern state-owned oil company with a major role in developing Iraq's oil sector. He said international oil companies are needed as well, both to develop the oil and help stand up INOC.

"However," he added, "we don't want to lose our own sovereignty, our own interest and our control over the oil."

--Ben Lando, UPI Energy Editor

http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Energy/Briefing/2008/02/11/top_iraq_mp_constitution_fix_then_oil_law/2065/

American Oil companies offered five million dollars to each Iraqi MP to pass the Oil law

Roads to Iraq:

January 29, 2008

Reported today on Akhbar Alkhaleej newspaper

An Iraqi MP preferred to remain anonymous told the newspaper that highly confidential negotiations took place by representatives from American oil companies, offering $5 million to each MP who votes in favor of the Oil and Gas law.


The amount that could be paid to pass the votes do not exceed $150 million dollars in the case of $5 million to each MP, pointing out that the Oil law requires 138 votes to pass, which the Americans want to guarantee in many ways, including vote-buying, intimidation and threats!


Focusing on the heads of parliamentary blocs and influential figures in the parliament to ensure the votes, the Americans guaranteed the Kurdish votes in advance but they are seeking enough votes to pass and approve the law as soon as possible.