Wikileaks: KRG & Contracts

HUNT OIL SIGNS AGREEMENT WITH KRG UNDER KRG OIL LAW CANADIAN NIKO SIGNS OIL CONTRACT IN KURDISTAN REGION OMV TO CONTINUE OIL EXPLORATION IN NORTHERN IRAQ DESPITE IRAQI EMBARGO OIL MINISTER ANNULS KRG OIL CONTRACTS KRG LOOKING TO BUY GOODWILL THROUGH OIL EXPORT OIL FOUND AT SEVERAL NEW SITES IN KURDISTAN REGION BAGHDAD-ERBIL OIL RAPPROCHEMENT? MPS OFFER SKEPTICISM AND OLD IDEAS FOR NEXT STEP OIL RAPPROCHEMENT? KRG PUBLISHES TWO CONTRACTS…

Legal Pros and Cons

30 March 2007 Iraqi oil veterans have made no bones about their unhappiness with the petroleum law approved by the cabinet in February. Not only do they criticize the speed at which it could open the upstream doors to major oil companies and the extent of Big Oil’s potential involvement, they say it’s wrong to be deciding the fate of the industry at a time when the state is struggling…

Federalism or Bust

15 September 2006 The debate over Iraqi devolution, which many regard as synonymous with carving the country up into autonomous mini states, has started. The principle was enshrined in the Iraqi constitution adopted last year. But as the stuttering launch of the parliamentary debate underlines, it’s not just the local drivers of the proposal — mainly Shiite groupings and, to a lesser extent, Kurds — whose interests are involved, regional…

Buying Time

29  September 2006 It will be 2008, at the earliest, before Iraq’s southern provinces unite to form the giant oil-rich federal region that some Iraqi groups are calling for. That’s the deal reached this week by Shiite and Sunni lawmakers which, for now at least, averts further ethnic and religious strife over a Shiite-backed law outlining the mechanisms whereby Iraq’s provinces can form autonomous regions. But the arrangement, brokered by…