Baghdad-Mil
The Finance Committee announced, today, Thursday, an agreement with the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq regarding reviewing its oil contracts with international companies .
The head of the committee, Atwan Al-Atwani, said in a statement received by “Mil”, “The committee delegation, which is currently visiting Erbil, held an expanded technical meeting with representatives of the Kurdistan Regional Government in the building of the Council of Ministers of the region, to discuss resolving the outstanding issues between Baghdad and Erbil .”
Al-Atwani added, “The meeting reviewed the oil files, financial revenues, automation of border crossings, unification of customs tariffs, and localization of employees’ salaries .”
He explained: “We have developed a roadmap to resolve the points of contention between the central government and the regional government regarding the oil export file .”
He pointed out that “the attendees reached an initial agreement with the regional government to conduct a comprehensive review of the oil contracts to adapt them to the Iraqi constitution, in preparation for resolving the problem of the halt in the region’s oil exports .”
Al-Atwani added, “The agreement stipulates that the central government and the regional government enter as a unified party in negotiations with international oil companies operating in the region with the aim of amending their contracts from production partnership to profit-sharing, in addition to reviewing the economic and commercial terms .”
He stressed that “the parliamentary finance committee is working to establish a sound basis for negotiations on resolving the pending issues, in order to resolve the oil export file during this year and eliminate the differences with the region,” stressing that “the committee will meet, upon its return to Baghdad, with the federal oil ministry, in order to discuss the controversial issues and push towards resolving them under the umbrella of the constitution .”
He explained that “the meeting reviewed, in numbers, the steps for implementing the file of localizing the salaries of the region’s employees, where the necessity of adhering to the decisions of the Federal Court was emphasized, and the file of border crossings, customs, and taxes was discussed, as well as ways to include their revenues in the country’s general budget, and the extent of the region’s government’s commitment to sending these funds to the federal government .”