Oil without a law: Political interests have maintained the obstruction for two decades.
Oil without a law: Political interests have maintained the obstruction for two decades.
6-4-2025
Information / Baghdad…
The long-awaited Oil and Gas Law, which has been pending since 2005, remains stalled in parliament amid renewed political disputes and conflicting interests, preventing its passage over four consecutive parliamentary sessions.
Although the legislation was included in the ministerial program of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani’s government and is considered a fundamental pillar for regulating the relationship between the federal government and the Kurdistan Region regarding the management of oil resources, the two drafts of the law remain mired in political controversy, with some parties attempting to impose their own interpretations of its provisions.
In the latest development on this issue, the Coordination Framework called for the urgent passage of the law before the end of the current parliamentary session. However, Ali Hussein al-Fatlawi, a leader in the Fatah Alliance, cast doubt on the feasibility of this, pointing to the presence of political parties, most notably the Kurdistan Region, obstructing the passage of the law for reasons related to economic interests.
Al-Fatlawi told Al-Maalouma that “the framework’s call stems from a genuine desire on the part of the coalition forces to resolve the issues related to the oil file,” but he emphasized that “passing the law during the remaining term of parliament is unlikely, given the lack of genuine will on the part of the political parties, especially the region, which stands to benefit most from the issue remaining unresolved.”
He pointed out that “there are international and regional wills that prefer to maintain chaos in the oil sector, which allows them to obtain quantities of it at low prices as a result of illegal pumping,” he said.
For his part, Dhurgham Al-Maliki, a member of the parliamentary Oil and Gas Committee, asserted that “the suspension of annual budgets is a result of the ongoing oil disputes between the central government and the region,” emphasizing that “the passage of the oil and gas law has become a national necessity to resolve approximately 90% of these disputes.”
Al-Maliki explained that “the legislation is governed by a political agreement, not by professional or technical calculations,” calling on political forces to “pressure the government to send the draft law to parliament and proceed with its approval.”
It is noteworthy that the Coordination Framework held an expanded meeting, the day before yesterday, Monday, in which it discussed a number of important files, stressing that the legislation of the oil and gas law represents the main key to ending the outstanding disputes between Baghdad and Erbil.
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