Iraq MP: Kurds, government stall oil law

BAGHDAD, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- The leader of the Iraqi Parliament's Energy Committee has accused Iraq's Kurdish leadership and the national ministerial council of holding up a draft oil law.

Abdul Hadi al-Hassani also said the federal government should keep up the pressure against the Kurdistan Regional Government for moving forward unilaterally on developing its oil sector in the north.

"The Parliament awaits for the government's approval of any of the draft law's four copies," Hassani told the Voices of Iraq news agency. He blamed the holdup on politics.

The draft law has been under negotiation for more than a year and is stuck in disputes between the Kurds, who want decentralized control over the oil sector, and Iraqi Arab leaders who want the national government in charge.

The law has seen many ups and downs. It was approved last February. Then a dispute broke out over which oil fields would be under the central government's control. It's also been altered a number of times -- so much that two of the three original authors oppose it -- and there are now more than one version.

Hassani's comments appear to mean the law isn't before the Parliament, as previously thought, but a step behind in the legislative process, waiting for a final version from the council of ministers.

Hassani reiterated the national government's reference of the KRG deals as "illegal." The KRG has passed its own regional oil law and signed more than 20 deals in the past six months. It feels the national government is moving too slow.

"The central government can use its political relations with the neighboring countries to pressure the government of Iraq's Kurdistan region to cancel these contracts," he said.

The Oil Ministry, which has threatened to blacklist firms that signed with the KRG, has told a South Korean oil importer to decide between purchasing Iraq oil and being part of a consortium in a KRG deal.