Iraqi Oil Law Changed “Substantially”

Iraq’s controversial draft oil law has undergone substantial changes that threaten the interests of the northern Kurdish region, a senior Kurdish official has said.

Ashti Horami, minister for natural resources in the autonomous administration in the northern Kurdish region, said a key change pertained to new oil exploration contracts.

“The most significant change is that they have added a clause that says that oil exploration contracts would be decided by the central government,” Horami has been quoted by wire reports as saying. “We do not know how they did these modifications but the changes would reduce the prerogatives of Kurdistan.”

Mahmud Othman, a Kurd and a lawmaker in Iraq’s embattled parliament has said that the Kurdish political bloc would “vote against the law if such changes are incorporated in the bill.”