Al-Harki: One law can solve the Kurdistan oil problem radically
Al-Harki: One law can solve the Kurdistan oil problem radically
1-26-2025
Information/Special..
Kurdish politician Ahmed Al-Harki confirmed today, Sunday, that the failure to legislate the oil and gas law makes the oil disputes between Baghdad and Erbil and opens the door to foreign interventions.
Al-Harki said in an interview with Al-Maalouma Agency, “The sharp differences and mutual accusations regarding the Kurdistan Region’s oil file are mainly due to the lack of a constitutional framework regulating the relationship between the center and the region and the failure to legislate the oil and gas law,” indicating that “the contracts concluded by the regional government with oil companies included a large sum for producing a barrel at a level of 26 barrels per dollar, and later it was reduced to 16 barrels as a compromise solution after Baghdad’s objection, and this can be addressed with new licensing rounds.”
He added, “This problem greatly harms the Iraqi people and affects their living standards and salaries. The absence of solutions also makes international parties intervene and pressure in favor of one party against another,” holding “the Kurdistan Regional Government and the federal government responsible and they must find a radical solution, not patchwork solutions.”
He pointed out that “legislating the oil and gas law, ending settlement, determining a realistic mechanism for the issue of oil and non-oil imports to the Kurdistan Region, and activating oversight are the radical solutions to this problem. As long as these solutions are absent, the crisis will continue and we will remain at square one.”
It is noteworthy that political forces and representatives confirmed the existence of oil smuggling activities from the Kurdistan Region with the assistance and intervention of international and regional parties, while Baghdad has been confirming for years that the regional government has evaded handing over oil and non-oil revenues to the center in exchange for receiving its share of the general financial budget.
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