Kurdish regional government has not seen oil law.

This is quite surprising that the cabinet would pass the law without even showing it to the Kurdish regional government. If there are sections with which the Kurds do not agree it will not likely pass the legislature. I wonder why it was able to pass the cabinet quickly?

Regional Kurdish govt says it's not seen Iraq oil law
Wed Jul 4, 2007 8:26AM BST
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The local government in Iraq's northern region of Kurdistan said it had yet to see a draft hydrocarbon law approved by the cabinet in Baghdad, possibly complicating passage of the landmark legislation.

Parliament was expected to start debating the law on Wednesday, Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told a news conference on Tuesday, describing the bill as the "most important" law in Iraq.

Washington has pushed Iraq for months to speed up passage of the law and other pieces of legislation, which are seen as vital to curbing sectarian violence and healing deep divisions between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs.

But the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), a key party to the negotiations, said it had neither seen nor approved the draft.

"We hope the cabinet is not approving a text with which the KRG disagrees because this would violate the constitutional rights of the Kurdistan region," the KRG said in a statement obtained on Wednesday.

Iraq's cabinet originally approved the draft in February but faced stiff opposition from the regional government in largely autonomous Kurdistan, which felt it was getting a raw deal.

The law decides who controls the world's third-largest oil reserves, aims to provide a legal framework for attracting foreign investment and sets up a new state oil company to oversee the industry. The final draft has not been made public.

The Kurds had previously said some of the law's annexes were unconstitutional because they wrested oilfields from regional governments and placed them under the new state oil firm.

Most reserves are in the Kurdish north and Shi'ite south, underscoring the need for equitable distribution to ensure Sunni Arab provinces in central Iraq get a fair share of revenue.

A companion law that covers revenue sharing would be approved by the cabinet this week and submitted to parliament next week, Iraqi officials have said.

The Kurds approved the revenue-sharing component in June, agreeing to take 17 percent of all oil revenue.

Thamir Ghadhban, an energy adviser to Maliki, said on Tuesday that a new Federal Oil and Gas Council would sort out the disputed annexes after parliament approved the law.

The council would allow regions to negotiate with oil firms but the central government would need to approve contracts, Iraqi officials in Baghdad have said.

(Additional reporting by Peg Mackey in London)


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