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Friday, 05 December, 2008, 17:10 GMT | more >>

New law key to Iraq’s oil future



By Upstream staff 

A new draft law seen as crucial to paving the way for rebuilding Iraq’s oil sector is expected to be passed by the country’s parliament.

Politicians are confident that the hydrocarbon law will be backed before the end of the year, although it faces a rough ride to secure a majority vote.

Thamer Ghadhban, the top energy advisor to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, said: “There is a good chance it will be passed.”

Ghadhban, a former oil minister, said Maliki and his allies, such as the influential Kurdish bloc, would gather enough votes to pass the draft law by a majority.

The Iraqi parliament has just returned from its summer recess.

It has been debating whether to allow members of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath party back into positions of power.

The Chamber is scheduled to discuss regional legislation before tackling the oil law

Any serious debate of the draft legislation is likely to happen at the end of Ramadan in the second half of October.

Abdul-Hadi al-Hassani, deputy head of the energy committee of the Iraqi parliament, said members would be seeking major amendments to the draft before it could be passed.

He said: “In the next few weeks it will be put forward for a first reading, then we have to come back and discuss it before voting.

“It is going to be hotly debated. I believe there will be a lot of amendments put forward.”

He said he expected parliamentary approval before the end of the year.

Representatives from the Kurdistan Regional Government also said their parliamentarians would support the Maliki camp to ensure the law was passed.

“We are in favour of the draft law and will vote for it,’’ Dara Yara, an adviser to KRG’s President Massoud Barzani, said.

Yara said the Kurds wanted a speedy approval to allow them to tap the oil resources of their autonomous region in the north where development work can take place, because of a favourable security situation.

Iraqi officials have put aside controversial clauses in the draft law. These will be tackled by a specialised oil and gas council at a later stage.

Hassani said the parliament may still want to include the controversial annexes that Kurds and other regions oppose for giving control of existing fields to the future Iraqi National Oil Company.

There is also opposition to contract models, especially from the Kurds who have signed a number of production sharing agreements with foreign oil companies.

These will need to be modified to comply with the new law.

Maliki’s government approved the draft oil law earlier and submitted it to the parliament without the annexes.

If the parliament insists on debating the annexes, it could seriously complicate the process.

“If parliament wants the law with annexes, we’ll have to send them,” Ghadhban said, adding that he hoped parliament would leave the disputed annexes to the new Federal Oil & Gas Council so as to allow easier passage.

Friday, 07 September, 2007, 03:07 GMT  | last updated: Friday, 07 September, 2007, 03:07 GMT

Positive: Iraqi energy advisor Thamir Ghadhban
 

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