Iraq urged to have oil law: report

BAGHDAD

Iraqi workers are seen at the Rumaila oil refinery near Basra city in this file photo. AP photo

A recent report called on oil companies and the international community to not make any agreements on disputed territories in Iraq, adding that time was running out to reach a solution for both Iraq’s Kurds and the government in Baghdad.

The latest International Crisis Group report “Iraq and the Kurds: The High-Stakes Hydrocarbons Gambit,” released on April 19, called on the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Baghdad government to resume negotiations on the status of disputed internal boundaries and a federal hydrocarbons law.

“Time is running out as unilateral, mutually harmful moves push relations to breaking point,” said Joost Hiltermann, ICG’s Middle East Deputy Program Director in a written statement. The report cited the example of oil giant ExxonMobil, which drew Baghdad’s ire for signing a deal with the KRG in the country’s north. ExxonMobil might have calculated that it could help bring both Baghdad and Erbil to the table, but it failed to do so, said the report. The report also called on all oil companies to refrain from signing contracts with either the government of Iraq or the KRG for acreage located in disputed territories, and suspend all operations in disputed territories until the status of internal disputed boundaries has been resolved. The report also advised the U.S. to announce its policy of advising international oil and gas companies not to sign contracts in Iraq’s disputed territories. The report also called on the Baghdad government and Turkey to avoid inflammatory rhetoric to each other. It also called on Ankara to continue to emphasize Turkey’s interest in the unity of Iraq and to engage with the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki government and the KRG, in order to assist them in coming to an agreement over an oil law.