ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The ruling of the top Iraqi court against Kurdish oil causes further issues in Iraq rather than solutions, an economist and oil expert told Rudaw on Saturday.
The decision of the Iraqi federal court caused problems as it did not solve anything, confusing the oil companies working in the Kurdistan Region, as well as the future of the industry across Iraq, Adnan al-Janabi told Rudaw’s Mohammed Sheikh Fatih in an interview in Baghdad.
“The world will view us differently if we confuse the contracts the Region has signed which have been in action for 15 years,” Janabi added.
The Iraqi top court in February found the Kurdistan Region’s oil and gas law to be “unconstitutional,” therefore striking down the legal basis for the independence of the Region’s oil and gas sector. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) responded to the decision, saying that the court’s ruling is not only “unconstitutional” but also “unjust.”
“We must have serious negotiations between the Region and the federal government to exit the crisis that the federal court created in regards of Kurdistan’s oil and gas law,” Janabi added.
Janabi served as an adviser at the Iraqi oil ministry from 1975 to 1976 and as a minister of state in the Iraqi government between 2004 and 2005.
He said Baghdad and Erbil can solve the issues engulfing the oil and gas industry by setting principles and “re-forming a joint board of oil and energy, not sponsored by the Iraqi oil ministry nor supervised by the Region only but a joint board with a political harmony.”
Disputes arose between Baghdad and Erbil in early 2014, when Baghdad cut the Region’s share of the federal budget, setting into motion a series of crises that the KRG still suffers from. By March 2014, the KRG started exporting its oil abroad in an attempt to secure the salaries of its employees.
The Iraqi and Kurdish governments were once again brought around the table in 2021 when Iraq was drafting its budget law. Both sides agreed that the KRG would continue its oil sales and would hand the revenue of 250,000 barrels of oil to Baghdad daily.
There are 52 oil blocks in the Kurdistan Region, 16 of them are in production, and 15 are in exploration phases. Over 30 international and local companies are working in the sector. The Region produces around 450,000 barrels per day.
The KRG last year pocketed a net of almost $4 billion in selling oil.
