New Parliamentary Comment On The Oil And Gas Law Legislation, 4 OCT

 New Parliamentary Comment On The Oil And Gas Law Legislation

Baghdad today – Baghdad   Today, Wednesday (October 4, 2023), the Parliamentary Oil and Gas Committee commented on the latest developments in the legislation of the Oil and Gas Law, which is the most important clause of the agreement between the forces of the State Administration Coalition, to form the Sudanese government.

Committee member Ali Saadoun said, in an interview with “Baghdad Today,” that “the delay in resuming the pumping of Kurdistan’s oil through Turkey has nothing to do with the issue of delaying the legislation of the oil and gas law,” indicating that “the draft law is still with the government technical authorities, and they are working on it.” Completing the draft in agreement with the Kurdistan Regional Government.”

Saadoun stated that “legislating the oil and gas law requires a political agreement, and due to the lack of this agreement, the legislation of the law has been delayed over the past years, despite the importance of the law, but we expect that currently there is almost an agreement to pass this law, despite the reservations of some parties about it within the House of Representatives.” .

Observers say that the essence of the dispute is due to a type of dispute over sovereignty over oil rights, production, and revenues. While Baghdad wants all rights to be vested in the central government, so that the revenues end up in one account subject to the supervision of the central government, the Kurdistan region authorities want to have the right to contract with foreign companies, and for the revenues to go to their own accounts, and not be subject to the Baghdad authorities.

New Parliamentary Comment On The Oil And Gas Law Legislation 55

Representative Firas Al-Muslimaoui said in previous press statements, “There is a real will in the House of Representatives to legislate the law,” noting that “Iraq’s oil is one and indivisible, and there is a movement towards achieving justice in the distribution of wealth to the people, whether in the Kurdistan region, the center, or the south.”

While Iraq exports about 3 million barrels of oil per day, the Kurdistan Region was exporting, before the closure of the Ceyhan line in Turkey, about 450 thousand barrels per day.

In this regard, the Prime Minister’s Advisor for Economic Affairs, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, told Al-Arab newspaper, “Adopting a unified national oil policy, and achieving optimal investment and production in Iraq’s oil area, starting from the southern fields up to the northern and regional fields, is an important and strategic matter in the matter of benefiting from Opportunity costs in the optimal and harmonious operation of the Iraqi oil policy currently, not to mention achieving the best financial returns for the country that we all aspire to to finance the construction of the Iraqi economy and the basics of sustainable development.”

Mazhar Saleh: The Law Will Establish A Stable National Road Map For The Oil Sector

The draft oil and gas law available to Parliament stipulates that responsibility for managing the country's oil fields must be entrusted to a national oil company, and supervised by a federal council specialized in this subject. While the Kurdistan authorities say that the Iraqi government “has the right to participate in the management of the fields discovered before 2005, but the fields discovered after that belong to the regional government.”

According to the official news agency, the consultation committee between the two parties includes “the Minister of Oil, the Minister of Natural Resources in the region, the Director General of SOMO, and the advanced staff in the Ministry of Oil, as well as the oil-producing governorates such as Basra, Dhi Qar, Maysan, and Kirkuk.”

Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani said at the beginning of last August that “the draft oil and gas law is one of the basic and important laws, representing a factor of strength and unity for Iraq, and it has been stuck for years, at a time when the country today is in dire need of its legislation and to benefit from this natural wealth, in “All fields and sectors, as well as the contribution of the legislation to solving many outstanding problems.”   Source: Baghdad Al-Youm + Agencies    LINK

Bringing In 11 Local Officials Caused More Than $41 Million In Damage

Economy News – Baghdad  Today, Wednesday, the Federal Integrity Commission announced the issuance of a recruitment order against (11) officials in the Tourism and Antiquities and Heritage Commissions and the Nineveh Governorate. As a result of the violations committed in the Nineveh Hotel (Aburoi) investment contract.

A statement from the Authority’s Investigation Department, received by Al-Eqtisad News, stated that “the Second Karkh Investigation Court issued a summons order against the general directors of the Administrative and Financial Department of the General Authority for Antiquities and Heritage currently, and the Iraqi Fashion House, following violations that caused damage to public funds.”

He added, "The recruitment order also included the former Director General of the Administrative and Financial Department, the Accounts Director, and the former Fund Division Official at the Tourism Authority, as well as the former Governor of Nineveh, two former members of the Nineveh Investment Committee, and 3 of its engineers."

He pointed out that "the order was issued against the backdrop of violations committed in the investment contract for the (Nineveh Aburoy) Hotel concluded between the Tourism Authority and one of the real estate investment companies," noting that "those violations caused damage to public funds in the amount of (383,346.41) dollars, representing The total revenue from hotel rooms, and an amount of (886,323,373.3) dinars, representing the total salaries of employees with retirement entitlements.”

He stated that "the Second Karkh Investigation Court issued its decision to bring the accused based on the provisions of Article (331) of the amended Penal Code No. (111 of 1969).

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