Iraq official calls for oil partnerships

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – A top Iraqi official called for partnerships with international companies to boost his country’s oil industry on Sunday, saying
Iraq’s emergence as a “secure petro-democracy” could quell rampant sectarian violence.

Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh, a Kurd, conceded disputes between local officials and the central government over who controls oil proceeds were one of many obstacles to making improvements. But he said he was hopeful that oil would be a “unifying force for Iraqis rather than a resource to fight over.”

He spoke of Iraq emerging as a “secure petro-democracy” with the strength to put an end to the violence that threatens to tear the country apart.

“I don’t underestimate the gravity of the situation in Iraq,” Saleh said during a U.N.- and U.S.-sponsored Iraq donor conference in the Emirates capital of Abu Dhabi. “We are in a very critical situation.”

AP