Parliamentary Oil and Gas Committee: Kurdistan’s oil contracts violate the constitution and lack transparency.
Parliamentary Oil and Gas Committee: Kurdistan’s oil contracts violate the constitution and lack transparency.
5-23-2025
Al-Maalouma / Special..
Member of the Parliamentary Oil and Gas Committee, Basem Al-Gharibawi, expressed his surprise on Friday at the Kurdistan Region’s continued policy of “non-compliance” with federal decisions, considering that the new oil contracts concluded by the region “lack transparency and violate the constitution and the law.”
Al-Gharibawi told Al-Maalouma Agency, “The Kurdistan Region has accustomed us to its non-compliance with the decisions of the Federal Court and the courts, nor with political agreements, nor even with laws.” He added that “the amendment of Article 12 of the budget was primarily carried out to resolve the financial issues between the region and the federal government, after the region’s representatives insisted on amending it and turning a new page. However, they returned today with new demands outside the legal context.”
He criticized what he described as “the ambiguity surrounding the new contracts concluded by the region with American companies,” stressing that “the federal Ministry of Oil is not aware of these contracts, nor does it know their nature, whether they are production or profit-sharing contracts or service contracts.”
He added, “The federal government has previously invalidated contracts concluded by the region because they were production-sharing contracts, which is unconstitutional.” He stressed that “oil is a national wealth that belongs to all Iraqis according to the constitution, and any contracts must be concluded in consultation with the federal government and through the central government.”
Al-Gharibawi concluded his statement by saying, “We live in one state, and everyone must feel that they are part of it. Any encroachment on federal powers represents a violation of constitutional principles and national partnership.”
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