Baghdad and Kurdistan solve issue of payment for oil firms: Senior Iraqi official

[SocalDinar]

 

Baghdad and
Kurdistan solve issue of payment for oil firms: Senior Iraqi
official

 

February 24,
2013

ERBIL/BAGHDAD,— The
long-standing conflict over payments to oil firms operating in Iraqi Kurdistan
has been solved, according to a senior Iraqi official.

Ibrahim
al-Jaafari, who heads the pro-government national alliance, announced that the
sides “have reached a legal framework to cover the payments due to foreign firms
with deals with the (Kurdish) region.”

The feud of who controls oil
reserves and production in Iraqi Kurdistan has been raging for over two years
since the Kurds allowed oil firms to explore and extract oil in their
areas.

Scores of foreign oil firms have been working in the region,
illegally from Baghdad’s viewpoint, and their activities are reported to have
helped the Kurds to produce up to 1 million barrels a day in a few
years.

The new agreement, according to Jaafari, is conditional on Kurds
shipping their oil destined for exports via Iraqi national pipelines and the
royalties ending up in Iraqi national exchequer.

Payment of up to $4
billion are due and Jaafari said asking for guarantees “is legitimate” before
transferring the money.
 

 

Few details of the agreement have emerged,www.ekurd.net but Jaafari said the
government would make paying foreign firms in the Kurdish region a special
section in the national budget.

The agreement to cover for the contracts
the Kurds have signed with foreign firms gives them the leeway they have been
demanding to run production operations on their own.

But the agreement by
the Kurds to funnel all oil via Iraqi national pipelines with central government
collecting the royalties pleases the government in Baghdad.

Earlier, the
Kurds had agreed to ship up to 175,000 barrels a day via the national pipelines
for export to the outside world.

But the shipments fluctuated around
100,000 to 120,000 before they were suspended over disagreement on how to pay
foreign firms with deals with Iraqi Kurdish region.

By Ali al-Mawsawi,
Azzaman
 

[MyLadiesDaddy]

Few details of the agreement have emerged,www.ekurd.net but Jaafari said the
government would make paying foreign firms in the Kurdish region a special
section in the national budget

Read more: http://dinarvets.com/forums/index.php?/topic/142159-baghdad-and-kurdistan-solve-issue-of-payment-for-oil-firms-senior-iraqi-official/#ixzz2LpZkPfuK

 

Well now we know why the budget hasn't been past. And doesn't this 

 

sound as if the HCL law is completed? 

[SocalDinar]

And a contradicting article as usual.

 

Iraqi Groups Fail to Agree Oil Payments, Lawmaker Says

 

Iraq’s political factions failed to agree on the amount of money due to international oil companiesworking in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, said Ammar Tohme, a lawmaker from the ruling coalition.

Kurdish lawmakers said the companies are owed 4.2 trillion dinars ($3.6 billion), while the central government’s accounting bureau said the amount is $1.5 billion, Tohme said in a telephone interview from Baghdad. Iraq’s government-sponsored Iraqiya earlier said that the political groups had reached an agreement.

Lawmakers from the ruling coalition met Kurdish parties, along with government ministers and other officials, in parliament in Baghdad to discuss the issue. “The groups met today but the issue has not been settled,” Tohme said.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), DNO International ASA and Genel Energy Plc (GENL) are among companies caught in a dispute between Iraq’s central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government over production contracts, territorial claims and the sharing of oil revenue. Tensions have deepened in recent months, with armed clashes in the disputed Kirkuk area in November and a suspension in exports of Kurdish oil through the central government’s pipeline network since December.

The groups may call for a future meeting between Oil Minister Abdul Kareem al-Luaibi and Ashti Hawrami, the KRG natural resources minister, together with the parliamentary finance committee to reach an agreement on the payments, Tohme said.

Iraq, the largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries after Saudi Arabia, holds the world’s fifth-largest crude reserves, according to data from BP Plc (BP/) that include Canadian oil sands.

To contact the reporters on this story: Nayla Razzouk in Dubai at nrazzouk2@bloomberg.net; Kadhim Ajrash in Baghdad at kajrash@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-24/iraqi-groups-fail-to-agree-oil-payments-lawmaker-says.html