Iraqi Kurd MP wary of oil law

BAGHDAD, April 7 (UPI) -- An Iraqi parliamentarian representing Iraq's Kurds says his party will not approve a draft oil law that has been altered from the February 2007 version.

Bayazid Hasan, part of the Kurdistan Alliance bloc in Iraq's Parliament, said the version agreed to by the Kurdistan Regional Government in February had been altered in the political process.

"The draft that was presented to the Iraqi Parliament is not the same as the one the KRG and the Iraqi premier politically agreed on in February 2007," he told the Aso newspaper, which is politically aligned with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the two leading Kurdish parties in Iraq. "Hence, passing the law has become a problem."

Last week Abdul-Hadi al-Hasani, the deputy chair of Parliament's Oil and Gas Committee, told United Press International there were renewed negotiations over a draft law governing development and investment in Iraq's oil sector.

Four different versions of the law have been stuck in the committee since last July. The dispute is mainly over differing opinions of foreign investment in the oil sector and the level of central versus decentralized government control over the oil strategy.

"Shortly, we'll see a new draft which there is more common ground," said Hasani. The latest draft is based on "good dialogue" between the central and Kurdistan region governments, he said, and the Council of Ministers will soon approve it and send it to his committee.