Nechirvan Barzani: The Federal Court’s decision was based on a law of the previous regime and is not enforceable
Nechirvan Barzani: The Federal Court’s decision was based on a law of the previous regime and is not enforceable
2022-02-16
The President of the Kurdistan Region, Nechirvan Barzani, said that the decision of the Federal Court regarding the oil and gas law in the region is unconstitutional, and was based on a law of the time of the previous regime.
Barzani said in a statement, “At a time when Iraq is going through complicated political situations, a decision was issued by the Federal Court describing the oil and gas law in the Kurdistan region as unconstitutional, and we believe that this decision, which was based on a law of the time of the previous regime, neglected the foundations of federalism and the constitutional rights of the region.” Kurdistan and it is not in line with the spirit of the constitution and the federal system,” noting that “it is not feasible on the ground.”
He added, “We believe that the Federal Court, instead of this decision, should have issued a decision to address the oil and gas problems with the region according to the constitution and to be in the interest of all the Iraqi people.”
The President of the Kurdistan Region said, “We are waiting for the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court to reconsider this decision and to take into account the constitutional rights and the federal system so that there is no violation of the legal and constitutional rights of the Kurdistan Region, in addition to not complicating the political situation further, and causing harm to the interests of Iraq in general.” .
Earlier on Tuesday, the Federal Court issued a decision “unconstitutional for the oil and gas law of the Kurdistan Regional Government, with the obligation of the regional government to hand over all oil production from oil fields in the Kurdistan Region and other areas from which the Ministry of Natural Resources in the Kurdistan Regional Government extracted oil and delivered it to The federal government represented by the Federal Ministry of Oil and enabling it to use its constitutional powers regarding oil exploration, extraction and export.
He added that the Ministry of Oil has the right to follow up on the invalidity of the oil contracts concluded by the Kurdistan Regional Government with foreign parties, countries and companies regarding oil exploration, extraction, export and sale, and to oblige the Kurdistan Regional Government to enable the Iraqi Ministry of Oil and the Federal Financial Supervision Bureau to review all oil contracts concluded with the regional government regarding the export of oil and gas. And selling it for the purpose of auditing it and determining the financial rights owed by the Kurdistan Regional Government as a result of it, and determining the region’s share of the general budget in a manner that guarantees the delivery of the rights of the citizens of the governorates of the Kurdistan Region from the federal general budget and not delaying it and notifying the federal government and the Federal Financial Supervision Bureau of that.
And the Kurdistan Region began to sell its oil in isolation from the federal government, after a stifling financial crisis as a result of the collapse of oil prices during the ISIS invasion of areas in Iraq, in addition to the disputes with Baghdad that prompted the latter to stop paying the salaries of the region’s employees.
Baghdad says its national oil company, SOMO, is the only one authorized to sell Iraqi crude oil, but each side claims the constitution is on its side. Since the Iraqi oil and gas law remained imprisoned in the drafting stage due to differences, there was room for maneuver.
The oil file is one of the most prominent outstanding issues between Baghdad and Erbil.
Baghdad used to pay 453 billion Iraqi dinars per month (about $380 million) as salaries to the employees of the Kurdistan Region, but it stopped them after the region conducted the independence referendum on its part, and because of what Baghdad said that the region was not committed to handing over its oil in accordance with the terms of the federal budget.
After several rounds of political negotiations, the region was obligated, according to an agreement with the government in Baghdad, to hand over 250 thousand crude barrels per day of crude oil produced from its fields to the state-owned company SOMO, and hand over the revenues to the federal public treasury.
burathanews.com
