Notice from the Federal Court regarding the unconstitutionality of the Kurdistan Region Oil and Gas

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[size=52]Notice from the Federal Court regarding the unconstitutionality of the Kurdistan Region Oil and Gas Law[/size]

[size=45]Today, Thursday, the Federal Supreme Court (the highest judicial authority in Iraq) issued a notice regarding its decision on the unconstitutionality of the Oil and Gas Law of the Kurdistan Region.[/size]
[size=45]The court said in a statement today that it issued its decision No. (59 / federal / 2012 and unified 110 / federal / 2019) on February 15, 2022, based on the provisions of Articles (110, 111, 110, 115, 121 and 130) of the Constitution of the Republic of Iraq for the year (2005) No. Especially that the decision issued by one of the courts of the United States of America, based on a lawsuit by the plaintiff from the Iraqi Ministry of Oil and the defendant, the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Kurdistan Regional Government, was in favor of the plaintiff.”[/size]
[size=45]The statement clarified that the decision was appealed by the appellant, the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq, and the US Court of Appeals issued its decision on December 21, 2015 the Fifth Circuit. The appeal ended with the decision (for the aforementioned reasons, we agree to the ministry’s request (the Iraqi Oil Ministry) to reject this appeal).[/size]
[size=45]In its note, the court indicated that “therefore, the supreme interest of Iraq and its people requires resolving the case numbered (59/Federal/2012 and unified 110/Federal/2019) and issuing the decision in accordance with what was stated in it.”[/size]
[size=45]On Tuesday (15 February), the Federal Court issued a decision “unconstitutional for the oil and gas law of the Kurdistan Regional Government, with its obligation to hand over all oil production from oil fields in the region and other areas from which the Kurdistan Ministry of Natural Resources extracted oil and handed it over to the federal government represented by the Ministry of Federal Oil and enable it to use its constitutional powers regarding oil exploration, extraction and export.[/size]
[size=45]The President of Kurdistan Region, Nechirvan Barzani, described the decision as "unconstitutional" and was based on a law of the time of the former regime, and stressed the regional government that "such an unconstitutional decision cannot be accepted."[/size]
[size=45]The Kurdistan Regional Government considered the decision of the Federal Court on the oil and gas law in the region, on Tuesday, as “unconstitutional,” stressing that it cannot be accepted.[/size]
[size=45]And the Kurdistan Region began to sell its oil in isolation from the federal government, after a stifling financial crisis as a result of the collapse of oil prices during the ISIS invasion of areas in Iraq, in addition to the disputes with Baghdad that prompted the latter to stop paying the salaries of the region’s employees.[/size]
[size=45]Baghdad says its national oil company, SOMO, is the only entity authorized to sell Iraqi crude oil, but each side claims the constitution is on its side. Since the Iraqi oil and gas law remained imprisoned in the drafting stage due to differences, there was room for maneuver.[/size]
[size=45]The oil file is one of the most prominent outstanding issues between Baghdad and Erbil.[/size]
[size=45]Baghdad used to pay 453 billion Iraqi dinars per month (about $380 million) as salaries to the employees of the Kurdistan Region, but it stopped them after the region conducted the independence referendum on its part, and because of what Baghdad said that the region was not committed to handing over its oil in accordance with the terms of the federal budget.[/size]
[size=45]After several rounds of political negotiations, the region was obligated, according to an agreement with the government in Baghdad, to hand over 250 thousand crude barrels per day of crude oil produced from its fields to the state-owned SOMO Company, and hand over the revenues to the federal public treasury.[/size]
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