Kurds Want To Independently Manage Oil in New Iraqi Govt

Iraqi Kurdistan Region’s Prime Minister, Barham Salih, gestures as he speaks to Rudaw in an interview in Erbil.----- Photo by Rudaw.

Prime Minister of the federal region of Kurdistan, Barham Salih, asserted that Kurdistan has had a successful oil policy and any prospective government must allow the region to manage its own oil autonomously.

Due to the oil policy in which the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has signed dozens of contracts with foreign companies independent of Baghdad’s central government, the Kurdish region’s energy sector has seen a significant improvement, said Salih.

But Iraq’s Minister of Oil, Hussein Shahristani, has long accused Kurdistan of illegal management of oil and considered all the contracts that the region signed null and void. 

“The Kurdistan Region has a clear-cut and transparent policy of oil,” said Mr. Salih, in an exclusive interview with Rudaw, rejecting criticisms from the opposition parties that accused a handful of Kurdish officials of “smuggling” oil for their own benefit rather than the average citizens.

“What we should do now is to make business and investment of our country’s oil to help our country progress its energy sector.”

Salih added that Kurdistan, which is estimated to have 3-6 trillion cubic meters, can provide gas for Europe through Nabucco pipeline, which is expected to be operational by 2015, to lessen Europe’s dependency on Russia’s gas.

“The Europe needs us. There have been a number of great countries demanding gas from Kurdistan,” said Salih, adding that this is in the strategic interest of both Kurdistan and Iraq.

“Thus I want to tell you that in the future government of Iraq, we must have a policy of oil on which we agree on, a policy that gives Kurdistan its constitutional rights to manage its own oil activities.”

Disagreements between Kurdistan and the central government in Baghdad have ended since March elections, as the Iraqi parties have not been able to form a new coalition government after more than seven months.

Many analysts say that Kurds have now emerged as a kingmaker in as both of the top vote getters, Iyad Allawi’s Iraqiya and Nuri Maliki’s State of Law, are in tough battle over who should top Iraqis posts.