5 September 2007
The Iraqi cabinet has withdrawn a draft hydrocarbon law it sent to parliament in July after it failed to muster enough support from lawmakers to approve it. The cabinet has instead reverted to an older version endorsed by the council of ministers in February which it hopes will be backed by five parties when it’s put to a vote before the end of the year, a senior Iraqi official told International Oil Daily on Tuesday.
The Iraqi National Assembly reconvened after a month-long recess Sep. 4 and is expected to start debates on a number of key benchmark laws demanded by Washington, including the hydrocarbon law.
In early July, the cabinet approved a second version of the draft oil law, but its efforts to launch the debate in parliament were stalled by objections from within its ranks, as well as the objections of different political parties and factions in parliament. The two main Kurdish parties, whose 53 votes are essential to adopt the law, have protested that the Shura Council, a government legal body charged with legalizing the texts of laws, has made unauthorized substantive changes to the text of the draft law that was approved in February. They charged the organization of a future Iraq National Oil Co. (INOC) along more commercial lines had been mooted and the central government’s powers over the country’s oil sector were strengthened in the revised version.
“That version of the draft has now been withdrawn. The consensus among the parties is to go back to the Feb. 15 version which was approved on Feb. 26 by the Council of Ministers,” the official said.
The consensus was reached during negotiations among the main four Shiite and Kurdish parties and one Sunni party last month to form a coalition which would guarantee the government enough votes in parliament to get the oil law approved. The new alliance was formed after the 15-month-old government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki became paralyzed as ministers from three political blocs, or nearly half of the cabinet, quit or decided to boycott the cabinet. The new alliance comprises the two major Shiite parties — the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council led by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim and Maliki’s Dawa party — the two Kurdish parties led by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Kurdish President Massoud Barazani, as well as the Islamic party of Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi.
The five allies believe they have enough votes to insure a quorum in the 275-seat parliament and to get the benchmark laws approved.
The cabinet is also expected to present other oil-related bills to parliament for approval over the next few weeks. A financial resources draft law which divides revenues, including oil income, between the federal government in Baghdad and the regions received a preliminary approval but is yet to be finalized. A draft of another bill establishing INOC has been finalized and sent to the Shura Council for review, while a third, defining the authorities of the federal oil ministry, has received the legal green light and is set to be submitted to the cabinet for endorsement in the coming weeks.
By Ruba Husari, Dubai
(Published in International Oil Daily Sept. 5, 2007)