Iraqi Official Doubts Kurds' Oil Deals

(CBS)  By CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer.

---

Energy companies that make deals with the Kurdish government may strike oil, but they'll have trouble selling it, warns Iraq's Oil Minister.

"Iraq's neighbors - Syria, Iran and even Turkey - have said they will only allow oil over the border to market that is being exported by the federal government," Dr. Hussein al Shahristani told CBS News.

This is the latest salvo in an escalating fight between Iraq's national government and Kurdish regional authorities. At issue is how Iraq's vast oil wealth will be shared out, and who will control the commercial terms under which foreign companies operate.

A comprehensive Oil and Gas law should spell out the rules - but it has never been passed by Iraq's Parliament. For months, it has been stalled by political wrangling and foot-dragging.

Meanwhile, some companies have lost patience and negotiated deals directly with the Kurdish Regional Government. It controls a huge semi-autonomous area in northern Iraq, and passed its own oil and gas law unilaterally in August.

Texas-based Hunt Oil Company announced earlier this month it had signed such an agreement. It joins companies from Canada, Turkey, the Persian Gulf and Norway which have already begun exploring for oil and gas in Kurdistan.

Iraqi politicians accuse the Kurdish Regional Government of obstructing the national law so it is free to negotiate at the regional level. Many suspect that these deals - signed before the national law is passed - will funnel a larger proportion of oil profits back to the Kurds.

"That poses a threat to the sovereignty of Iraq," said al Shahristani. "If people don't believe the Kurds are sharing their oil wealth fairly, then other oil producing regions will not want to share theirs either."

"But," he adds, "the deals the Kurds have done so far have no legal standing. They could be annulled and the companies involved will suffer the consequences."

"Of course that is not true," said Kurdish Regional Government spokesman, Khalid Saleh. "How can any serious government official think they are in a position to punish any company working in Iraq legally to contribute to the country's revenue for the benefit of the whole country?"

The Kurds deny they are impeding the national oil law's passage in Iraq's Parliament.

"In fact we are the engine moving it along," said Saleh, who estimated that a national law may eventually be passed in October.

In the meantime, the Kurdish Regional Government is courting oil business on its own terms, and has even published its Oil and Gas Law along with a sample Production-Sharing Agreement, in English, on its Web site.

[getloud1]

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[red164]

Bush''s extreme right wing base continues to claim,the Iraq War had nothing to do with OIL.



(ROLLING MY EYES)

[pushdaree]

All turks, Syrians or others need is enough share of oil revenue to let it be exported by KRG. Since when international are laws applied. Iraqi Oil is being smuggled under watch of the oil minister and participation of regional states, so much for international laws.

[prinzowhales]

Hug your tar baby, War Pigs! It looks like you''ll have to fly your oil out of your rump quisling-run statelet.

Turks! If the US and Israel attack and occupy Syria, the northeast of Syria will be open for the shipment of oil to the Med. The Syrians have had a long history of abusing its Kurdish minority, even denying them citizenship. All those soldiers, just a sitting there on the Iraqi border dreaming of the pretty girls of Ankara and Istanbul with no where to go... One day I hope to sit on a wooden bench with a view of the Bosporus watching the steamers traversing it, playing chess, drinking oozo, smoking a pipe and listening to the conversation of pretty Turkish girls...If I were a Turk, I would watch out for Mamaray and treacherous allies.

[fntc]

And here is the draft oil revenue sharing law:
http://krg.org/pdf/English_Draft_Revenue_Sharing_law.pdf

[fntc]

Some of you left-wing guys don''t know what you are talking about.

Around 93% of the Iraqi oil fields will be under the control of the Iraqi national oil company.

Here is a copy of the real draft law, not some bloggers version:
http://www.iraqdevelopmentprogram.org/images/tools/iraqoillaw.pdf

[iceman_1960]

Whoops... I feel like such a heel...

Make that:

"France didn''t send over a huge army to do most of the fighting, while the Founding Fathers dragged their HEELS for 4+ years."

[iceman_1960]

"jowand asked, "How ''''''''bout France fighting for the US Colonies independence? Or the US fighting to free Europe from Naziism?"
---
False analogies."
- Posted by alphaa10 at 10:41 PM : Sep 29, 2007

Yes, false analogies.

France didn''t send over a huge army to do most of the fighting, while the Founding Fathers dragged their heals for 4+ years.

It wouldn''t be called "the AMERICAN Revolution" if they had. Nor would there be a United States of America as we know it today.

France supplied some naval support, that''s all. The Founding Fathers and their Army did the heavy lifting.

As for WW2, there are about a million reasons why that analogy falls on its face. To begin with, WW2 was not a civil war between the good French and the bad French, or the good Dutch against the bad Dutch, or the good Germans against the bad Germans.

World War Two is called "the good war" for a reason. It was worth fighting. You could count on the fingers of one hand, those Americans who felt otherwise.

Not even jowand has ever called the Iraq war "the good war."

That leaves 999,998 other reasons...

And why on earth would jowand invoke an analogy that makes Dubya, his hero, look like such an incompetent.

Roosevelt and Truman emerged victorious over two world powers in a war that stretched across the Atlantic and the Pacific and involved almost every continent on earth, in less time than Dubya has been bogged down in a country smaller than Peru in area and population.

[rationall7]

Texas - based Hunt oil, go figure.

[brianbwb-2009]

%u201CBut," he adds, %u201Cthe deals the Kurds have done so far have no legal standing. They could be annulled and the companies involved will suffer the consequences.%u201D

This is called "force majure", and is internationally recognized as a legitimate reason to cancel the terms of a contract, including the liabilities of the signatories. Any refusal by the Kurds, or their business partners to honor this government right is also refusal to recognize national sovereignty. al Shahristani is correct, by international law.