A representative of the Kurdistan Democratic Party explained the remaining disputes over the oil and gas law, how to manage the fields in a joint way and also share the revenues of the customs, and expected that the Turkish conditions, which he described as harsh, would eventually be accepted by the Iraqis, because the water would remain like Turkey, and he also asked about the revenues of Kurdistan’s oil And whether the region deserves salaries if there is no oil, like many provinces that do not have oil.
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Wafaa Muhammad Karim, a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, in an interview with the journalist Saadoun Damad, followed by 964 Network:
There is a dispute in the regional environment and another internal one, technical, about the resumption of oil pumping from the Kurdistan fields to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. For example, there are 420,000 barrels of oil for the region suspended due to the lack of an agreement with the Turkish side, and the visit of Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan raised demands and some insurmountable conditions that the SOMO Company for Iraqi Oil Marketing is not satisfied with.
Iraq so far does not have an alternative to the Ceyhan line, and even the potential options are difficult, because the Turkish side will threaten to cut off the water entitlements, and the issue of water is linked to the PKK file and the oil file. These three files must be resolved, but what matters most to Iraq is its share of the water, even if it is at the expense of enacting the oil and gas law, and I think that Iraq will submit to Turkish conditions for the sake of water.
According to the constitutional Article 114, the border crossings are shared. Every month, the Iraqi government cuts a percentage of the region’s share, but it is an inaccurate percentage (unlike the joint administration). For example, they cut 150 billion dinars per month as half, but now Baghdad demands all internal revenues from fees and customs And this month they were supposed to send 911 billion dinars, but they cut off 308 billion dinars as internal revenues and border crossings. Iraq deducts that every month.
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The oil and gas laws concluded by Kurdistan are based on the Iraqi constitution. That is why the giant companies took the initiative to conclude contracts because they saw them as legal and legitimate based on the constitution, as they are companies that have major legal departments.
At that time, the regional government asked Mr. Al-Maliki to legislate the oil and gas law. That is why it was a draft law in 2009, but it was not passed in parliament.
There are many technical and routine obstacles today. We must enact other clear laws and not rely entirely on the constitutional provisions. (There are several interpretations.) The constitution talks about the management of the current oil fields, while the management model has not been decided regarding the new fields, whether with the region or the oil-producing governorates that do not belong. for provinces.
We did not talk about future fields, that is, after 2005, and most of the oil fields in Kurdistan were after 2007, so we want a law that explains everything.
Things have changed since last April 4, after the oil agreement between Muhammad al-Sudani and Masoud Barzani, to be jointly managed. Therefore, Baghdad was granted the position of deputy director of SOMO for the Kurdistan region. When SOMO is responsible for concluding contracts, exporting oil and extracting oil. This was our agreement.
The most important thing for the Kurdistan region is to obtain its entitlements from the budget. Iraq has linked oil exports to the share of the budget, and this needs to be addressed. There are provinces that do not export oil and receive their full share of salaries. Let us assume that the region is not an oil exporter like it.
