Analysis: KRG explains oil deal breakdown

The contracts have not been published, but Ashti Hawrami, Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government natural resources minister, insists everything needed to know about what’s in the dozens of contracts signed between the KRG and international oil companies is in the public domain.

In a recent interview with United Press International from his office in Erbil, the capital of the KRG, Hawrami explained the breakdown of contract ownership by the companies and how much control the government has in the contract.

… He said the details of all this will be published in the coming months, including an account held in an Erbil bank of all the funds collected in the oil deals, to be turned over to Baghdad once a revenue-sharing law is signed.

Since 2004 the KRG has signed more than 20 contracts to explore for and develop oil in the region, with two contracts commercially producing oil already. While the Iraqi Oil Ministry in Baghdad claims the deals are illegal, it apparently can’t stop the KRG, which signed a handful again last week.

The KRG deals range from small international firms to some of the largest state-owned and independents, like Dallas-based Hunt Oil, India’s Reliance, MOL from Hungary, OMV of Austria and the Korea National Oil Corp.

The production-sharing contracts were negotiated outright, not up for bid, and the KRG has been criticized for not being transparent.

Energy Daily