Iraq Oil Report

*The Kurdish oil minister speaks his mind.
*Shahristani: Kurds used military to prevent oil development by Baghdad
*Kurds self sufficient and producing 1 million barrels in five years

Iraqi Kurdistan’s oil minister, Ashti Hawrami, begins his U.S. tour of political and business leaders from Washington to Texas a hot item with international oil companies, but with icy relations with his counterpart in Baghdad.

He has signed around 20 oil deals with international oil companies, most after the national oil minister labeled them illegal.

Hawrami blames Baghdad for playing politics with a national oil law, prompting the Kurdistan Regional Government to move ahead with its own regional oil law in August.

And he simultaneously defends his oil deals as constitutional while condemning Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani’s plans to rely on the Saddam Hussein-era legal regime to sign its own contracts.

“I tell the critics that rather than focus on these silly issues they should be focusing on doing something positive for the Iraqi people,” Hawrami told United Press International in an interview.

Hawrami, joined by Qubad Talabani, son of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and the KRG’s main man in Washington, as well as another KRG-Washington staffer, was frank about his beef with Baghdad, defending the KRG’s strategy, and the future where he would produce nearly half the amount of oil Iraq is pumping today.

“You cannot blame people from getting frustrated when time and time again the only thing Dr. Shahristani does is shout ‘illegal’ for any achievement Kurdistan makes. That is not the way to work. So when he puts people into corners, he should expect a message back,” he said, adding he hasn’t met with Shahristani since April. …

Read my entire story for UPI here.

Hawrami made a number of revelations, both to UPI and at a press conference in Washington Tuesday.

First, however, is another front in the brewing storm between the two oil ministers:

Iraq’s oil minister accused the Kurds of using military force to prevent Baghdad from developing an oil field in the north of the country, Ian Talley, Hassan Hafidh and Spencer Swartz report for Dow Jones Newswires.

Rumormill: the Kurds unleashed the Peshmerga (it’s own security forces) to prevent the development of the Khurmala Dome (part of the Kirkuk field). It recently gave a contract to the Kurdistan National Oil Company to develop.

More from my interview with Hawrami (separate stories):

*Residents of Iraq’s Kurdish region will have all the fuel and electricity they need within three years and may even export power, its oil minister says.

*Iraqi Kurds will be able to export oil to Turkey, the region’s oil minister said, despite concerns from Baghdad and Ankara over the moves by Kurds.

*Iraq’s Kurdish region plans on producing 1 million barrels — nearly half of Iraq’s total production today — in five years, the region’s oil minister said.

*The recent batch of oil deals signed by Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government is the last for now though talks with oil firms continue,
its oil minister says.

Editor’s Note: Hawrami got more specific in the news conference Tuesday at the National Press Club. The Dow Jones story also says he may sign up to 20 more deals by January.

Plus: The Iraq Press Roundup by UPI’s Hiba Dawood.

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