Lawmaker accuses Oil Ministry of violating constitution

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: MP from the oil and gas committee on Tuesday accused the Oil Ministry of violating the constitution for not giving the Kurdistan region any authority to run its oil wealth. “The Oil Ministry does not want to give any authority to the region to manage the oil as it wants to manage the oil in a central way and this violates the constitutions because there is a constitutional article indicating that it could not legislate laws which violate the constitution,” Hussein Blu, member from the Kurdistan Alliance, told IraqiNews.com news agency. “The article related to the oil and gas is one of the disputed issues in the constitutional amendments,” he said, noting that the Kurdish side look to this issue from a constitutional point of view and the other parties want to violate the constitution to keep all authorities in the hand of the federal government. Last year, Korea National Oil signed production-sharing contracts for the Qush Tappa and Sangaw South blocks with the Kurdish regional government and agreed to buy stakes in six other oil fields. Iraq’s Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani has warned that Kurdish contracts will be reviewed when a federal energy law is passed. Oil agreements signed between the largely autonomous Kurdistan region and international oil companies have been a sore point between the Federal government and Kurdish leaders. SH (S)/SR 1