“Oil and Gas Law” resolves pending issues between Baghdad and Erbil, 4 JAN

 “Oil and Gas Law” resolves pending issues between Baghdad and Erbil

Shafaq News/ The Oil and Gas Committee in the Iraqi Parliament considered, on Saturday, that the agreement on the draft “Oil and Gas Law” and sending it from the government to the parliament will contribute to resolving many of the pending issues between Baghdad and Erbil.

Committee member Bassem Al-Gharibawi told Shafak News Agency, “Agreeing on the draft oil and gas law and approving it in the Council of Ministers and then sending it to Parliament will contribute to resolving many of the outstanding problems between the federal and regional governments.”

According to Al-Gharibawi, the government had previously formed a committee headed by the Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs, the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, and the Iraqi SOMO Company to negotiate with the regional government regarding amending the disputed articles and preparing a final version of the oil and gas law.

He added, “The Parliamentary Oil Committee hosted a number of officials from the Ministry of Oil during the previous legislative session, and discussed the formulas and articles that require amendment to the Oil and Gas Law.”

Last week, Iraqi economic expert, Nabil Al-Marsoumi, revealed that 9 foreign companies were demanding compensation amounting to 24 billion dollars resulting from the halt in oil exports after the Iraqi judiciary rejected the appeal of the Iraqi Ministry of Oil to cancel these companies’ contracts with the Kurdistan Region.

The Karkh Court of Appeal rejected an appeal submitted by the Iraqi Ministry of Oil and overturned previous rulings that declared the contracts of foreign companies with the Kurdistan Region invalid .

According to the court, contracts are considered “valid,” enforceable, and binding on both parties, and no party outside the contract has the right to object to them, even if they are based on a legal basis that the Federal Supreme Court in Iraq deemed unconstitutional in February 2022 .

The court explained in the reasons on which it relied that the decision of the Federal Supreme Court issued in February 2022 cannot be applied to contracts concluded before its issuance, in accordance with a general principle in Iraqi civil law.

shafaq.com