Iraq Oil Report

This week appears to be a buzz in Baghdad with KRG passing up meetings with oil officials in Texas to be there.

The oil minister of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government cut short his U.S. visit to head to Baghdad, where Parliament this week is to question him on the 20 oil deals the KRG has sign already with international oil firms.

He and other officials from the KRG will appear sometime this week as criticism over the oil deals has created dissent, of some sort, with politicians in Baghdad upset the region is moving forward in its oil sector.

KRG Minister of Natural Resources Ashti Hawrami has irked the central government by signing the oil deals, and saying he’ll be signing more.

Baghdad says the KRG should wait for a national oil law governing the world’s third largest oil reserves to determine control over the oil fields, the rights to sign contracts, and the extent foreign oil firms can invest.

The Kurds blame Baghdad for moving too slow — though each blames each other for derailing the stalled draft oil law — and thus passed its own regional oil law and continued signing contracts.

Hawrami arrived in Washington, D.C., last month, and was to meet with government and business officials there and in Texas.

According to sources, Parliament will hold a hearing on the KRG deals. The Kurdistan Alliance is core part of the current coalition government in Iraq’s government, and any action against the KRG will not be taken lightly by the key member of the already fragile government.

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