Iraq nullifies Kurdish oil deals

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s oil ministry has declared all crude contracts signed by the Kurdish regional authorities with foreign companies null and void.
 
“The ministry has nullified all contracts signed by the Kurdistan Regional Government,”a government official said, asking not to be named.

The government in Iraq’s northern autonomous Kurdish region has signed 15 exploration and exportation contracts with 20 international companies since it passed its own oil law in August, infuriating the Baghdad government.

Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani has in recent weeks angrily denounced the Kurdish authorities for signing the contracts before the national parliament approves a new oil and gas law, declaring them “illegal”.

The government official said the minister had now gone further and nullified all the contracts and had warned the foreign companies involved that they would be blacklisted. 
  
“Minister Shahristani had warned companies who sign contracts without taking the advice of the oil ministry that the ministry would ...blacklist them from any future deals with Iraq,” the government official said.
“The minister had told them the oil ministry in Baghdad is the only institution authorised to sign oil contracts before the approval of the oil law.”

“The Iraqi government had warned these companies of the consequences of entering into these contracts,” the minister added. “And the consequence is that Iraq will not allow these companies to extract the oil.”

The Kurdish authorities reacted sharply on Saturday, saying Shahristani should take the matter to the federal tribunal which deals with disputes between the provinces and the central government.