Iraq - Baghdad sends oil delegation to Kurdistan region
18-Nov-09 [20:9]
PNA -BAGHDAD, — Two of Iraq’s three deputy oil ministers arrived Sunday in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, leading a delegation aimed at patching up a bitter, three-year feud over the control of oil deals and oil laws.
Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad denied the goal of the trip is to negotiate an overdue agreement on the country’s oil strategy. The visit also comes the day the Basra-based Fadhila Party announced it had launched a campaign to remove Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani from office.
The Kurdistan Alliance holds a powerful minority role in Parliament.
The team is meeting with Barham Salih, who was recently appointed prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government KRG.
Until the July elections in the KRG,www.ekurd.netSalih was deputy prime minister of Iraq, and led a not-so-subtle campaign targeting Shahristani’s leadership.
The dispute was cordial compared to Shahristani’s feud with northern nemesis Ashti Hawrami, KRG natural resources minister. The two rarely, if ever, speak lately, following a breakdown of a deal for governing Iraq’s oil sector, initially agreed to in early 2007.
Abdul Karim Laebi, deputy minister for upstream, and downstream deputy minister Motasam Akram Hassan, are leading the delegation, which arrived Sunday. It’s not clear thus far how long the delegation is staying and who else is part of it.
The group will “congratulate Barham Salih for his post as prime minister of KRG,” a source in the Oil Minister told the Iraq Oil Report. It will also “discuss unsolved issues between both sides, the central government and KRG, to find solutions.”
Solutions in Iraq are hard to come by, especially when it involves the revenue and power of controlling the oil sector. The future of oil-rich Kirkuk, claimed by Kurds as well as Turkomen and Arabs, has gone unresolved for years and nearly killed a law governing this January’s national elections.
Iraq has the world’s third largest proven oil reserves and earns more than 90 percent of state income from oil exports. It is producing nearly 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd) now, exporting just under 2 million of it.
It’s assumed that a deal over oil-related laws will not be made until a new government is formed, following the elections. But last minute scurrying for compromise may reflect concerns the results of the election will bring to power a recast leadership that would make decisions even less favorable to the current feuding parties.
Baghdad says it has the sole right to sign oil contracts with foreign oil firms, as Iraq remains a nationalized oil sector. But Iraq’s Kurdish northern area – protected by international forces following the invasion of Kuwait and with semi-autonomy enshrined in Iraqi law after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion – decided to create their own oil economy after being neglected for decades by Saddam Hussein.
While this has meant new oil discoveries in the north, including two fields that exported oil for a few months this year, the two dozen deals are considered illegal by the central government.
The fight over decentralization of the oil sector has stalled a new oil law regulating the country’s hydrocarbons, as well as companion laws for sharing revenue, reconstituting the national oil company and reorganization the ministry of oil.
Earlier this year, Barham Salih, as deputy prime minister, organized a conference in Baghdad that was in name aimed at studying the status of Iraq’s oil sector. In reality, it was an attempt to embarrass Shahristani by presenting reports highlighting a decline in output from southern oil fields.
Shahristani, an independent but allied with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, has in recent weeks finalized a deal with BP and partners Chinese National Petroleum Corp. to boost production in the Rumaila field. Two other fields in the south have deals pending for them with the Council of Ministers: Exxon Mobil and partner Shell and Eni with partners Occidental Petroleum and Korea Gas will likely sign in the coming weeks.
These are intended to increase production by nearly 4 million barrels per day. Shahristani touted the contracts during a recent questioning in Parliament. Jabir Khalifa Jabir, a Fadhila member and third ranking in Parliament’s Oil & Gas Committee,www.ekurd.netled the questioning and said he expects to get enough signatures for a vote of no confidence.
The ministry doesn’t seem to be worried – and such a vote is unlikely still – as evidenced by the cool response to queries of the meeting in Erbil.
“In the media, it is mentioned that the Oil Ministry delegation to KRG is to solve the problems and find solutions, but in fact the delegation went to Kurdistan for giving the congratulations to Dr. Barham Salih for becoming the Kurdistan prime minister,” is all spokesman Jihad would say.
iraqoilreport
http://www.peyamner.com/details.aspx?l=4&id=152866
18-Nov-09 [20:9]
PNA -BAGHDAD, — Two of Iraq’s three deputy oil ministers arrived Sunday in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, leading a delegation aimed at patching up a bitter, three-year feud over the control of oil deals and oil laws.
Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad denied the goal of the trip is to negotiate an overdue agreement on the country’s oil strategy. The visit also comes the day the Basra-based Fadhila Party announced it had launched a campaign to remove Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani from office.
The Kurdistan Alliance holds a powerful minority role in Parliament.
The team is meeting with Barham Salih, who was recently appointed prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government KRG.
Until the July elections in the KRG,www.ekurd.netSalih was deputy prime minister of Iraq, and led a not-so-subtle campaign targeting Shahristani’s leadership.
The dispute was cordial compared to Shahristani’s feud with northern nemesis Ashti Hawrami, KRG natural resources minister. The two rarely, if ever, speak lately, following a breakdown of a deal for governing Iraq’s oil sector, initially agreed to in early 2007.
Abdul Karim Laebi, deputy minister for upstream, and downstream deputy minister Motasam Akram Hassan, are leading the delegation, which arrived Sunday. It’s not clear thus far how long the delegation is staying and who else is part of it.
The group will “congratulate Barham Salih for his post as prime minister of KRG,” a source in the Oil Minister told the Iraq Oil Report. It will also “discuss unsolved issues between both sides, the central government and KRG, to find solutions.”
Solutions in Iraq are hard to come by, especially when it involves the revenue and power of controlling the oil sector. The future of oil-rich Kirkuk, claimed by Kurds as well as Turkomen and Arabs, has gone unresolved for years and nearly killed a law governing this January’s national elections.
Iraq has the world’s third largest proven oil reserves and earns more than 90 percent of state income from oil exports. It is producing nearly 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd) now, exporting just under 2 million of it.
It’s assumed that a deal over oil-related laws will not be made until a new government is formed, following the elections. But last minute scurrying for compromise may reflect concerns the results of the election will bring to power a recast leadership that would make decisions even less favorable to the current feuding parties.
Baghdad says it has the sole right to sign oil contracts with foreign oil firms, as Iraq remains a nationalized oil sector. But Iraq’s Kurdish northern area – protected by international forces following the invasion of Kuwait and with semi-autonomy enshrined in Iraqi law after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion – decided to create their own oil economy after being neglected for decades by Saddam Hussein.
While this has meant new oil discoveries in the north, including two fields that exported oil for a few months this year, the two dozen deals are considered illegal by the central government.
The fight over decentralization of the oil sector has stalled a new oil law regulating the country’s hydrocarbons, as well as companion laws for sharing revenue, reconstituting the national oil company and reorganization the ministry of oil.
Earlier this year, Barham Salih, as deputy prime minister, organized a conference in Baghdad that was in name aimed at studying the status of Iraq’s oil sector. In reality, it was an attempt to embarrass Shahristani by presenting reports highlighting a decline in output from southern oil fields.
Shahristani, an independent but allied with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, has in recent weeks finalized a deal with BP and partners Chinese National Petroleum Corp. to boost production in the Rumaila field. Two other fields in the south have deals pending for them with the Council of Ministers: Exxon Mobil and partner Shell and Eni with partners Occidental Petroleum and Korea Gas will likely sign in the coming weeks.
These are intended to increase production by nearly 4 million barrels per day. Shahristani touted the contracts during a recent questioning in Parliament. Jabir Khalifa Jabir, a Fadhila member and third ranking in Parliament’s Oil & Gas Committee,www.ekurd.netled the questioning and said he expects to get enough signatures for a vote of no confidence.
The ministry doesn’t seem to be worried – and such a vote is unlikely still – as evidenced by the cool response to queries of the meeting in Erbil.
“In the media, it is mentioned that the Oil Ministry delegation to KRG is to solve the problems and find solutions, but in fact the delegation went to Kurdistan for giving the congratulations to Dr. Barham Salih for becoming the Kurdistan prime minister,” is all spokesman Jihad would say.
iraqoilreport
http://www.peyamner.com/details.aspx?l=4&id=152866