Parliamentary Committee: Completion of the draft oil and gas law within two weeks

POSTED ON[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] BY [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

[size=52]Parliamentary Committee: Completion of the draft oil and gas law within two weeks[/size]

[size=45]A specialized parliamentary committee expected to complete the drafts of the oil and gas law within two weeks, pointing out that it includes about 40 articles.[/size]
[size=45]The deputy head of the Oil and Gas Committee in the House of Representatives, Nehru Rwandzi, said, “Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani decided to form a committee of three ministers of the Iraqi federal government from the three components, Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, to resolve the matter of the draft oil and gas law.”[/size]
[size=45]Two draft laws were prepared by the Iraqi federal government in the years 2007 and 2011 and submitted them to the House of Representatives, but differences between the political parties prevented a vote on any of them.[/size]
[size=45]According to informed sources, the main point of disagreement regarding the draft oil and gas law is between the Kurdistan region and the Iraqi federal government over the powers to produce oil and gas, the method of managing joint fields, and the interpretation of Article 11 of the permanent Iraqi constitution, which says that oil belongs to all Iraqis in all regions and governorates.[/size]
[size=45]And the first meeting was held in Baghdad on (August 5, 2023) to discuss the issue of the draft oil and gas law, with the participation of the delegation of the Kurdistan Regional Government, the federal ministers of foreign affairs and oil, representatives of the oil and gas producing provinces, and the prime minister’s advisors.[/size]
[size=45]Rwandzi continued, "Opinions were divided on two fronts, one for the provinces that produce oil in abundance, such as the province of Basra, and its opinion is close to the opinion of the Kurdistan region, which calls for granting them a special status and relying on the constitution in dealing with this issue, and another front for the provinces with little production of oil and gas, which is closer to the call for centralization." ".[/size]
[size=45]The sixth paragraph of Article 13 of the Federal General Budget Law stipulates that dealing with the oil of the Kurdistan region will take place in accordance with the budget law until the issuance of an oil and gas law, and the most prominent articles of the budget in this regard require that the Kurdistan region hand over 400 thousand barrels of oil per day to the federal government in order to obtain its financial dues .[/size]
[size=45]The ministerial platform of the government headed by Muhammad Shia’ al-Sudani, which was voted on in the House of Representatives on (October 27, 2022), provides for authorizing the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government to negotiate the oil and budget files to prepare the draft oil and gas law in accordance with the constitution and within six months of the new government assuming its duties.[/size]
[size=45]The six months have passed and the draft oil and gas law, which is the key to resolving the differences between the Kurdistan region and the federal government, has not been prepared.[/size]
[size=45]For his part, a member of the Parliamentary Oil and Gas Committee, Ali Al-Lami, stated that the number of articles in the draft oil and gas law will exceed 40 articles, while the number of articles in the previous two drafts was less, indicating that the draft will be drafted by taking into account the opinions of the oil-producing governorates and in accordance with political agreements.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Lami expected that “the agreement will obtain a draft oil and gas law within the next two weeks, and it will be voted on in the Council of Ministers to be submitted to the House of Representatives for the purpose of approval.”[/size]
[size=45][You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]