October 23 2006
Kurdish leader seeks deal over oil
By Steve Negus, Iraq Correspondent
The Financial Times
(KRG), told the Financial Times. The demand adds to the mounting pressure on the government of Nouri al-Maliki, Iraqi prime minister, over security.
KRG officials condemned Baghdad at the end of last month, when the central government said it would not recognise contracts signed between their government and oil producers to develop new fields in the northern autonomous zone.
The dispute has the potential to delay development of new fields which the Kurds say could produce 200,000 to 300,000 barrels a day by the first half of next year, and up to 1m b/d thereafter.
The Kurds say Iraq's constitution approved in October 2005, gives them the right to develop new fields and, while they would like Baghdad's consent, they will go ahead without it. Mr Barzani said he would also attempt to solve another oil dispute, relating to the share of oil income the government is supposed to hand over as part of a revenue-sharing deal.
Iraq projected its budget for 2006 at $33bn (€26bn, £17bn) when the projected oil price was $26 a barrel, he said. "Of course the oil was sold at around $60, sometimes more . . Right now there is about $500m which is the share of the region and they don't give it."
The prime minister of Iraqi Kurdistan hopes to clear up a year-long dispute with Baghdad over the control of oil resources in a forthcoming visit to Baghdad, when he will also tackle a budgetary dispute he claims has resulted in the region being shortchanged by as much as $500m.
"I hope after the Ramadan holiday festivities end [today] we will be visiting Baghdad and we will be able to solve that problem," Nechirvan Barzani, premier of the Kurdistan Regional Government
Nechirvan Barzani, premier of the Kurdistan Regional Governmen
