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OPEC member Iraq intends to form a federal oil council that will oversee projects and other activities in the hydrocarbon industry under a new landmark law that has yet to be ratified, officials and experts have said.
After nearly 15 years, OPEC’s second largest oil producer has failed to endorse the “Oil and Gas Law” due to sharp differences among governorates and with the autonomous Northern Kurdistan region, they said.
“After all these years, the new law is still being written…it requires a political, economic and legal agreement among all parties concerned,” said Sabah Subhi, a member of Parliament’s Oil and Gas Committee.
“A political consensus is a pre-requisite for this law to see light given the fact that Iraq relies on oil for 90 percent of its budget…I believe we are in the process of drafting a law which is very important, sensitive and crucial to Iraq,” Subhi said, quoted by Alforat News and other Iraqi publications on Thursday.
In early August, Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Sudani forced a committee grouping officials from the Oil Ministry and relevant authorities from each governorate as well as Kurdistan to supervise discussions for a final draft of the law.
According to the official Iraqi news agency the new law stipulates the formation of a “Federal Oil and Gas Council” to be headed by Sudani or his deputy.
Council members will include the Ministers of Oil, Finance and Planning besides the Central Bank Governor, Kurdistan government representatives, officials from each governorate up Iraq, and experts in oil, finance and economy.
According to official estimates, Iraq controls nearly 145 billion barrels of extractable oil deposits and 4 trillion cubic metres of natural gas.
(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)
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