Iraq’s Kurds Aim for Own Oil Ministry

Leaders of Iraq’s Kurdish north have unveiled a controversial plan to consolidate their hold on the region’s future petroleum resources, raising concerns about how the ethnically divided nation will share its oil revenue.

The Kurdish parliament will be asked to vote on the creation of a Ministry of Natural Resources that would regulate potentially lucrative energy projects in newly discovered oil and natural gas fields within the three provinces of Iraqi Kurdistan.

The new ministry, if established, would be another step in the Kurds’ gradual retreat from the Baghdad government, as well as a potentially destabilizing development in a country already on the verge of fragmenting along ethnic and religious lines.

“They have the right to make a decision in their territory, but it is dangerous,” said Mohammed Aboudi, a divisional director-general of the national Oil Ministry and a government advisor. “They are starting to search for oil without any consultation with the central government. What if Basra does the same, or any other province?”

Los Angeles Times