U.S. still focused on Iraq oil law

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- U.S. officials continue to focus on Iraq’s national oil law after the Kurdish region unilaterally approved four more controversial oil deals with foreign firms.

The Kurdistan Regional Government announced Tuesday it had signed two production-sharing contracts with a subsidiary of the Canadian firm Heritage Oil and Gas and a subsidiary of the French firm Perenco S.A. The KRG statement said the two other deals would be signed soon, and more deals are in the pipeline.

The Iraqi federal government has been unable to reach agreement on a national oil law that would govern the vast Iraqi oil sector, determining the role of the federal/regional/provincial governments as well as the extent the private sector would be allowed to invest. That law is stuck in Parliament.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Wednesday she hadn’t heard about the KRG deals but stressed “we obviously want the (federal) oil law to be passed.�

U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Baghdad to make progress on the oil law during a meeting with visiting President Jalal Talabani.

A separate revenue-sharing law, which would decide how the revenues from oil sales are collected and redistributed, has not even been passed by the Council of Ministers, before heading to Parliament.

The KRG, controlling a relatively peaceful region in the north, has little of Iraq’s proven reserves, but experts say there are plenty to be found. Eager to develop, the KRG had already signed a handful of contracts with small, independent oil firms.

The world’s largest oil firms are waiting for the federal government to pass legislation before they attempt to sign deals to explore and develop the oil.

In August the KRG approved its own regional oil law. Last month it signed a deal with Dallas-based Hunt Oil. Baghdad immediately decried the moves as illegal and stepping outside the national government framework.