Baghdad and Erbil agree to pump Kurdistan's oil through "SOMO" and a high position for the Kurds in

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[size=52]Baghdad and Erbil agree to pump Kurdistan's oil through "SOMO" and a high position for the Kurds in the distribution company[/size]

[size=45]Revenues are placed in a unified account that is monitored by both parties until the “oil and gas” legislation.[/size]
[size=45]Baghdad / Tamim Al-Hassan[/size]
[size=45]Yesterday, Muhammad al-Sudani, Prime Minister, directed the immediate implementation of the new agreement between Baghdad and Erbil to resume pumping oil from Kurdistan.[/size]
[size=45]The new agreement, which was described as “temporary”, included that the Iraqi Oil Marketing Company “SOMO” sell oil, provided that it puts the revenues in a unified account that is monitored by both sides.[/size]
[size=45]The agreement may also include granting the Kurds a high position in the Federal Distribution Company as a message of reassurance to Kurdistan, according to the Oil Committee in Parliament.[/size]
[size=45]In addition, the huge numbers of employee salaries in the new budget, which exceeded 90 trillion dinars annually, shocked those concerned with economic affairs.[/size]
[size=45]And the huge expenditures threaten to return the budget to the government again at a time when parliament is supposed to start discussing the bill today.[/size]
[size=45]The number of employees in the new budget is about 5 million employees, the security forces represent more than a third of the number, while the government intends to prove more than 700 thousand contracts according to the budget.[/size]
[size=45]On the investment side, the budget includes about 3 trillion dinars for the purchase of weapons, compared to weak allocations for the Ministry of Industry, which represent about half of the allocations for endowment offices.[/size]
[size=45]Yesterday, the head of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Masrour Barzani, described Prime Minister Muhammad al-Sudani as "the prime minister of all Iraqis."[/size]
[size=45]Barzani's words came after Al-Sudani announced the agreement to resume exporting Kurdistan's oil, pending the enactment of the oil and gas law.[/size]
[size=45]The Prime Minister said in a joint conference between the two sides: "The technical authorities must immediately implement the agreement with Erbil and find legal ways for this matter."[/size]
[size=45]The case known as "French arbitration" had halted the export of oil from Kurdistan for about a week, while the loss was estimated to reach $37 million per day.[/size]
[size=45]Ali al-Mashkoor, a member of the Parliament's Oil Committee, reveals that "the agreement is temporary and interim until the oil and gas law is passed, which will regulate the sale of oil and the relationship between Baghdad and the region."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Mashkoor confirmed in an interview with (Al-Mada) that «the agreement stipulates that Kurdistan sells oil through SOMO, provided that a unified bank account is opened and supervised by the two governments».[/size]
[size=45]And the deputy said that this measure «will give transparency and control to the people of Kurdistan and Iraq to know the fate of oil revenues».[/size]
[size=45]As for the old contracts with oil companies that Kurdistan had concluded previously, Al-Mashkoor stressed that «Baghdad will abide by those contracts».[/size]
[size=45]On the other hand, al-Mashkoor explained that “the loans that Kurdistan took will not be binding on Baghdad except those that have been spent on developing the oil sector.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Mashkoor also revealed the existence of “proposals from the Ministry of Oil that the Kurds take over the position of vice president of SOMO as a kind of message of reassurance and mutual cooperation between the two sides.”[/size]
[size=45]After the announcement of the new agreement, Masrour Barzani said, "Re-exporting oil in the Kurdistan region will be beneficial to all, and we will seek a comprehensive and good agreement between the federal government and the regional government without leaving any aspect of our constitutional rights."[/size]
[size=45]The President of the Kurdistan Regional Government arrived yesterday morning in Baghdad, accompanied by the Minister of Natural Resources in the region, Kamal Muhammad.[/size]
[size=45]And the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance, Masoud Haider, said in a television interview on Monday evening that "the region will commit to handing over 400 thousand barrels of oil to the center and it was included in the budget."[/size]
[size=45]Last Thursday, trade sources told Reuters that the suspension of oil exports from Kurdistan stopped paying $6 billion in oil shipments owed by the region to energy companies, including Vitol and Petraco.[/size]
[size=45]And the pumping of oil from Kurdistan to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, on the Mediterranean, was suspended last Saturday, after Iraq won an arbitration case in which it said that Turkey had violated an agreement when it allowed Kurdistan to export oil without Baghdad's approval.[/size]
[size=45]The fate of the budget[/size]
[size=45]In addition, Basem Al-Gharabi, a representative of the Ishraqa Canon bloc, said, "Political bidding is escalating over the budget law."[/size]
[size=45]And Al-Gharabi said in an interview with (Al-Mada) that "the possibilities of returning the budget to the government still exist, especially since the differences between the political forces continue."[/size]
[size=45]According to the deputy, the cases of the absentees and the general amnesty demanded by the Sunni forces have entered into the settlement of the passing of the law.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Gharabi added, "There are calls for a reduction in the price of a barrel of oil, an increase in the provinces' share of the development of the regions and the share of Kurdistan, and criticism of the volume of spending."[/size]
[size=45]The members of the Finance Committee had expected that Kurdistan's share, approved by the Ministry of Planning, would be modified according to old population statistics.[/size]
[size=45]The new budget specified the share of Kurdistan at 12.6%, while Kurdish deputies estimated the proportion of the population of Kurdistan to be 14%.[/size]
[size=45]Representative Bassem Al-Gharabi estimates the period needed by parliament to pass the budget law, including “between a month and a half to two months, if political differences do not occur.”[/size]
[size=45]It is expected, according to what is being discussed in Parliament, that the second reading of the draft budget will be after Eid Al-Fitr, as it is assumed, according to the Council's agenda, that the first reading is today, Wednesday.[/size]
[size=45]Some details of the draft budget had been leaked, as economics professor at Al-Maqel University in Basra, Nabil Al-Marsoumi, revealed the total government salaries, which amounted to 92.566 trillion dinars.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Marsoumi said in a post on Facebook that the number of employees in the budget is 4,096,001 million employees, and that the number of employees in the security services is 1,503,339 million people, representing 36.7%.[/size]
[size=45]And the economics professor indicated that the salaries of employees on fixed staff amounted to 59.814 trillion dinars, the pension amounted to 18.122 trillion dinars, the salaries of social welfare amounted to 4.717 trillion dinars, and the self-financing and ministries companies amounted to 9.913 trillion dinars.[/size]
[size=45]And Al-Marsoumi indicated that the coverage percentage of oil revenues for total salaries is 79%.[/size]
[size=45]Masoud Haider, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance, had said in the last television interview that "the Ministry of Finance has established 729 thousand employees on staffing in the new budget."[/size]
[size=45]As for investment expenditures in the budget, they amounted, according to the decree, to 49.462 trillion dinars, and the ratio of investment expenditures to public expenditures is 24.8%, which is almost the same ratio in previous budgets.[/size]
[size=45]And the professor of economics stated that the Ministry of Oil acquires the largest share of investment allocations by about 16 trillion dinars, or 32% of investment expenditures.[/size]
[size=45]Next comes the electricity sector, with about 6.113 trillion dinars, at a rate of 12%, meaning that the oil and electricity sectors account for 44% of investment expenditures.[/size]
[size=45]Then imports of weapons and military equipment amounting to 3 trillion dinars, and investment allocations for the Ministries of Construction and Housing and Transport amounted to 3.784 trillion dinars and 2.753 trillion dinars, respectively.[/size]
[size=45]As for the investment allocations for the Ministry of Industry, they were low and amounted to 183.575 billion dinars only, which is less than half of the religious endowment allocations, which amounted to 410.908 billion dinars.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Marsoumi criticizes the weakness of investment allocations for commodity sectors, especially industry and agriculture, and the dominance of the energy sector in return for investment allocations.[/size]
[size=45]And the economics professor considered that: “This type of investment allocations will not be able to contribute to diversifying the production structure and sources of income in Iraq.”[/size]
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