Erbil to continue talks with Baghdad over the region's oil independence, MP says

Shafaq News/ Kurdistan's Minister of State for Parliament Affairs, Vala Fareed, on Sunday said that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) will continue the talks with the Federal Government to resolve the issue of the region's oil and gas in the aftermath of the Federal Court's ruling.

Fareed headed the KRG delegation that convened with the heads of the parliamentary blocs in the Kurdistan parliament to discuss the federal courts' decision to revoke the oil and gas law enacted by KRG in 2007.

"We all agree that the decision is political and violates the provisions and articles of the Iraqi constitution," she said in a statement to reporters, "KRG will continue the negotiations and dialogues with Baghdad to address the problem."

"The Kurdistan parliament, as a legislative body, as well as all the institutions in the Kurdistan Region will have a decisive word in this respect," she said.

The President of the Kurdistan region, Nechirvan Barzani, on Monday will convene with the Region's Prime Minister, Parliament Speaker, and Cheif Justice to ponder the reverberations of the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court's ruling that undermined the constitutionality of Kurdistan's oil and gas law.

An advisor to the region's president, Dilshad Shehab, said that the meeting will take place tomorrow, Monday.

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On February 15, the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court decreed that the natural resource law passed by the Kurdistan Regional Government in 2007 is unconstitutional, potentially upending the region's oil and gas industry.

Ruling that KRG oil exports and contracts with international oil companies are illegal, the court granted the federal government the right to annul such contracts, claim ownership of KRG oil, and hold Erbil liable for past oil revenues against budget allocations received from Baghdad.

In addition to undermining the KRG's energy industry, the ruling could limit federal Iraq’s too—indeed, the very concept of oil federalism is at risk. The decision also complicates the ongoing government formation process, and may even invite backlash against a judiciary that has maintained widespread respect

among Iraqis.