KRG: foreign oil ad gas companies are still operating in Kurdistan

Shafaq News/ The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) confirmed that the oil and gas companies usually work in Kurdistan.

"So far, no company has withdrawn. all of them are operating, as we have an oil and gas law that is still effective." KRG's spokesperson Jotiar Adel said in a press conference.

The KRG statement comes after local Iraqi media released news about the withdrawal of the American Giant companies Schlumberger and Baker Hughes from the Kurdistan Region in compliance with the Federal Court's decision regarding the Region's entitlement in the oil and gas file.

It is worth noting that the oil file is one of the outstanding issues between Baghdad and Erbil.

Erbil, which controls Iraq's only northern pipeline, has been developing oil and gas resources independently of the federal government. In 2007, its law established the directives by which the Region would administer these resources.

In February 2022, Iraq's federal Court deemed the law regulating the oil industry in Iraqi Kurdistan unconstitutional and demanded that Kurdish authorities hand over their crude supplies.

The ruling declared KRG oil contracts with oil companies, foreign parties, and states invalid. This includes exploration, extraction, export, and sale agreements.

Baghdad says its national oil company, SOMO, is the only authorized body to sell Iraqi crude oil.

The Kurdish President Nechirvan Barzani, Leader Masoud Barzani, and the Kurdish Government considered the Court's decision "unconstitutional."

The governments of Iraq and Kurdistan have agreed on Erbil's contribution to the 2020 federal budget.

The deal includes a transfer of 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) from the oil-producing Region to Iraq's national budget in exchange for securing the financial dues of the Region.

However, Kurdistan said that the federal government did not keep its promise of sending all financial duties; in return, Erbil kept transferring the 250,000 barrels.