Iraq’s Parliament is reading the draft budget for a second time, paving the way toward a vote, but as oil prices fall below $50, the numbers don’t add up.

PM Abadi's draft budget seeks to balance the competing interests of a fractured polity while contending with a devastating drop in oil prices and a crippling legacy of fiscal mismanagement.

Budget bill anticipates reduced revenue and big deficits, and incorporates an oil and revenue-sharing deal with Kurdistan.

A collection of Iraqi oil experts outside of government have sent an open letter to the Iraqi Parliament, just as it takes up a draft budget that incorporates the Dec. 2 deal between Baghdad and Erbil.

Rising oil output give KRG a strong negotiating position, but demands over independent export rights and control of disputed fields could put pressure on fragile Baghdad rapprochement.

The recent Baghdad-Erbil oil deal has inspired optimism, but it avoids key details at the heart of big issues – control of territory and oil rights – on which neither side wants to compromise.