Analysis: Iraqi Kurds sign new oil deals

[babylonsister]

http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Energy/Analysis/2007/10/02/analysis_iraqi_kurds_sign_new_oil_deals/5451

Analysis: Iraqi Kurds sign new oil deals

Published: Oct. 2, 2007 at 4:17 PM
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By BEN LANDO
UPI Energy Editor

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government made a sudden but not unexpected announcement Tuesday it had signed four more controversial oil deals. While the move highlights success in the region, it comes as the central government in Baghdad struggles to meet long-term agenda items like a national oil law.

Iraq’s government reacted to the news in the same vein it has to similar deals in the past: criticizing the KRG for a perceived unilateral move in an oil sector lacking needed identity and saying it is fueling the fire separating KRG-Baghdad compromise.

The KRG released a statement Tuesday that it had approved four production-sharing contracts for exploration and production in the region. It had signed two of them already, with Heritage Energy Middle East Ltd., a subsidiary of the Canadian firm Heritage Oil and Gas, and Perenco Kurdistan Ltd., a subsidiary of Perenco S.A. of France.

The other two will be announced “shortly,” the statement said, and there will be more deals to follow. Last month the KRG signed a production-sharing deal with Dallas-based Hunt Oil and at the time said more were in the pipeline.

“The projects will spearhead international investment for the whole of Iraq,” KRG Natural Resources Minister Ashti Hawrami said in the statement, which also said two deals were reached for new oil refineries in the KRG area, one with Heritage and the other with the Taq Taq Operating Co., a joint venture between Turkey’s Genel Enerji and Canada’s Addax Petroleum. Hawrami said the exploration deals will lead to more revenue in Iraqi coffers and the refineries will ease the fuels shortage Iraqis suffer from.

But the move is controversial for many reasons:

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http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Energy/Analysis/2007/10/02/analysis_iraqi_kurds_sign_new_oil_deals/5451

The central government hasn’t approved a federal oil law that will set the guidelines for foreign investment and the roles of the federal/regional/provincial governments in Iraq’s oil sector. Disagreements on both now hold up the law in Parliament.

[mmonk]

1. I think it may assure further conflict.