Iraq Kurds to take up own oil law

ERBIL, Iraq, July 30 (UPI) -- Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government will take up its own oil law Tuesday morning as it moves forward on economic development in the northern region.

A KRG official told United Press International the regional parliament will begin debate on a law that will set guidelines for developing the oil and natural gas reserves.

The law is less controversial than a federal oil law, stalled in negotiations and likely not to be debated in the Iraqi parliament in Baghdad before it takes the August recess. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, pressed by the United States, has been urging the parliament to approve the law.

Various factions are at odds over how much authority the central government should have over exploring, developing and producing Iraq's oil and gas versus the regional and provincial governments. They also can't agree on how much access foreign oil companies should have.

The issue is so divisive workers may strike and political parties pull out of the government. The Kurds have pressed for the law, as it would set the stage for Iraq as a whole, and their region specifically. The KRG area is relatively violence free and its economy has boomed compared to the rest of the country.

Last week the KRG parliament was unable to take up the law after some parties wanted to delay it, either to delve into the draft law more thoroughly or to give Baghdad time to act.

"We'll start our sessions with a debate on the draft law on oil and gas next week without any crucial differences among the parliamentary blocs," Othman Bani Marani, a leading member from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, told the Voices of Iraq news agency.

The parliament was to be on break from July 1 to Sept. 1, but resumed a special session on the issue.