The draft oil and gas law is one of the most controversial issues between the political blocs and the Kurdish national component.

The Kurds continue to steal Iraqi oil and sell it on the black market for half its market value, which is a huge waste of the country’s financial resources.

Independent politician Adnan Abdullah confirmed on Thursday that oil smuggled from the Kurdistan region is sold for less than half its value.

Abdullah told Al-Maalouma, “The region smuggles about 300,000 barrels per day, and this is no secret and the government and all political forces know about it.”

He added, “The smuggled oil is sold for less than half its value, which is what drives some brokers in neighboring countries to deal with the smuggling file due to the large profits, noting that” mutual interests with some forces in Baghdad push for not opening this sensitive file.”

He pointed out that “oil smuggling is illegal and represents a drain on the national wealth that everyone must preserve and its management must be federal.”

It is noteworthy that oil smuggling operations from the Kurdistan Region have been ongoing for years by some of the ruling parties in the region.

Despite the government’s moves to end the violations of the region’s oil exports by passing the Oil and Gas Law, the obstacle of the Kurdish parties is what is pushing to suspend the law by objecting to the paragraphs and articles of the law that will end the region’s Violations in the operations of extracting and exporting oil through the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

The  continuous objection and the placing of obstacles are due to preventing the approval of the law that may end the theft of contracts with foreign extraction companies in which the Barzani government is a major partner, in addition to ending the seizure of oil revenues and the positions They control as a result of exporting independently of the central government and the national SOMO company.

The Kurdish objection is centered on the paragraph of the control of the National Marketing Company (SOMO) over the operations of extracting, exporting and selling oil and gas.

Legal experts confirmed that all the articles that the Kurdish parties object to are not legal and constitutional, but rather in order to continue seizing the country’s wealth.  

The sources indicate that the Kurdish parties exploit the weakness of the governments in order to obtain high percentages of money, oil and gas revenues, and the approval of the law will end all these operations.

This is one of the reasons for not passing the oil and gas law from the House of Representatives, due to the major political differences that will keep the law in the drawers of the House of Representatives.

Member of the committee, MP Mohammed Anouz, ruled out today, Thursday, the ability of the political blocs to pass the oil and gas law and some other controversial laws.

Anouz told the / Al-Maalouma / agency, “The legal committee has a number of controversial laws that cannot be passed due to the political differences over them.”

He added, “There are laws that cannot see the light during this session due to the deep differences, most notably the oil and gas law that has not been decided for four previous parliamentary sessions.”
He confirmed that the law will be postponed to the next session in the hope that it will find consensus on it.   link

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Tishwash:  State Department in response to US State Department spokesman: There are no US forces in Iraq except for military advisors

One journalist, with his inaccurate answer, the State Department would like to clarify the following:

First: There are no American forces in Iraq except for military advisors who are under the umbrella of the international coalition. These advisors are included in the outputs of the work of the Military Committee

The highest level, and both parties are committed to the established mechanisms and their outcomes. Second: The work of the Supreme Military Committee during the past months focused on assessing the threat of ISIS with the aim of reaching a deadline for ending the military mission of Operation Inherent Resolve. On this basis, the presence of international coalition advisors of all nationalities on Iraqi soil will be terminated.

These discussions included details that included the hierarchy of advisors’ withdrawal from the sites, and all that remained was to agree on the details and date of the announcement and some other logistical aspects. We were very close to announcing this agreement, but due to recent developments, the announcement of the end of the international coalition’s military mission in Iraq was postponed.

Third: The bilateral relationship with the United States in all fields, including the security relationship, is completely separate from the course of the relationship with the international coalition forces. This relationship existed before the alliance and will continue after it. The Iraqi delegation discussed the future of the security relationship in areas:  link