Iraqi says Kurdish contracts not valid

ROME – Iraq’s Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said Monday that oil contracts between the autonomous Northern Iraqi Kurds and foreign companies remain invalid, despite recent amicable talks between the two sides over the country’s long-delayed federal oil law.

The Kurds have signed around 25 production-sharing contracts with several small and mid-sized oil companies, but Al-Shahristani said they do not meet the conditions of the draft 2007 law.


“We do not recognize them,” al-Shahristani told reporters on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum bringing together oil-consuming and oil-producing nations.

The draft law requires and open bidding process, and also would establish which foreign countries are eligible to work in Iraq. The dispute between the two sides has dragged on for many months and delayed agreement on a final oil law that Iraq needs to provide the legal framework critical to attracting foreign investment and ramp up oil production.

AP