Iraqi Kurds’ Independence Vote Exposed Risks to Energy Strategy
Iraqi Kurdish leaders have long sought to craft an energy policy independent of the federal government in Baghdad, courting international companies and offering lucrative deals to drill for potentially huge new reserves of oil and gas. Then in September, Kurdish voters overwhelmingly chose to break free of Baghdad. But instead of stepping closer to nationhood, the Kurds […]Stanley Reed writes for The New York Times:
Iraqi Kurdish leaders have long sought to craft an energy policy independent of the federal government in Baghdad, courting international companies and offering lucrative deals to drill for potentially huge new reserves of oil and gas.
Then in September, Kurdish voters overwhelmingly chose to break free of Baghdad. But instead of stepping closer to nationhood, the Kurds were handed a humiliating setback: Iraqi troops seized the disputed city of Kirkuk and the oil fields around it. That loss of territory comes on top of worsening trends in the local oil sector and continued tensions between Kurdistan, a region in northern Iraq, and its neighbors.
Taken in concert, those factors raise questions about the Kurds’ strategy of achieving political independence through energy, which provides nearly of all the regional government’s revenue.
