Iraqi Oil Illegitimately Auctioned Off?
Yet another conflict has arisen between the Kurds and the Iraqi government, this time stemming from rights to the country’s most important natural resource, oil. The Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq recently signed oil contracts with foreign oil companies, promising them rights to crude oil from the Kurdish region.
Iraqi oil minister, Hussain Shihristani, has declared that these contracts will not be recognized as legitimate by the central government in Baghdad, even though earlier in the week there was word of an agreement between the oil ministry and the KRG that oil would be allowed to be exported from the territory of Kurdistan to neighboring Turkey.
The Iraqi oil ministry maintains that oil revenues from crude oil extracted from anywhere within the nation’s borders should go directly to the central government in Baghdad for redistribution around the entire country. As Kurdistan has gained an exceptional amount of autonomy compared to ethnic enclaves in other nations, it will be interesting to see how exactly the Iraqi government plans to enforce its will and negate these contracts.
Haley Hackendale
