Baghdad and Erbil to pursue constitutional solution to oil disagreements

Shafaq News/ On Sunday, the Parliamentary Finance Committee established a national plan to resolve the oil disputes between Baghdad and Erbil, the Chairman of the committee, Atwan Al-Atwani, announced.

The Finance Committee said in a statement that, Al-Atwani chaired an expanded meeting to discuss the management of the country's oil wealth and the future of oil prices, as the country's budget is formed by 90% of these revenues.

“The meeting also addressed the developments in resolving outstanding issues with the Kurdistan Region regarding the settlement of disputes over production costs and the adaptation of foreign company contracts to the Iraqi constitution, to resume exports via the Turkish Ceyhan pipeline,” the statement revealed.

Al-Atwani pointed out that his committee is preparing a report regarding the amendment of Article 12 of the General Budget Law, which will be submitted to the Iraqi Parliament for a second reading.

He emphasized that the Finance Committee has held a series of continuous meetings with officials from both the federal government and the regional government, and has "defined a national path to find a permanent solution to this problem based on the constitution and law, in a manner that achieves justice in wealth distribution among Iraqis."

Al-Atwani stressed “the need to set a timetable for implementing the terms of the oil agreement between the center and the region, as stipulated in the draft amendment to the Federal Budget Law, which was approved by the Cabinet and sent to Parliament.”

During the meeting, the Deputy Minister of Oil for Extraction Affairs, Basim Muhammad Khudair, reviewed the mechanisms for calculating the cost of oil production and transportation, as well as the main agreements reached with the region in this regard.

The Deputy Minister stressed the necessity for the Federal Ministry of Oil to be responsible for the reservoir management of the region's oil fields, pointing out that his ministry “has established standards for calculating the cost of producing a barrel of oil, whether for fields managed by national efforts or those operated by foreign companies.”