Iraq nullifies Kurdish oil deals

[Barrett808]

Source: AFP

Iraq nullifies Kurdish oil deals
by Ammar Karim
Sat Nov 24, 5:57 AM ET

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq's oil ministry has declared all crude contracts signed by the Kurdish regional authorities with foreign companies null and void, a government official said on Saturday.

"The ministry has nullified all contracts signed by the Kurdistan Regional Government," the official told AFP, asking not to be named. "They will not be recognised."

The government in Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region has signed 15 exploration and exportation contracts with 20 international companies since it passed its own oil law in August, infuriating the Baghdad government.

Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani has in recent weeks angrily denounced the Kurdish authorities for signing the contracts before the national parliament approves a new oil and gas law, declaring them "illegal".

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071124/wl_mideast_afp/ira...

[jimshoes]

1. Those Kurds can't make deals for something

bushco has already stolen and sold to the highest crony. The nerve.

[Mika]

2. Time for another surge..

.. time for more troops.. more bombs.. more bloodshed.. more death squads.. more weapons to all sides..

More profits to be made.

[Robbien]

3. The Kurds keep pushing

Sooner or later the US will have to pick a side because the Kurds are making it a Kurds vs Iraq stance.

[gratuitous]

4. Yeah, I'm not sure what this means

But it sounds ominous, nevertheless.

[annabanana]

5. The article doesn't say WHICH "foreign countries"

the Kurds had treatied with. Does it matter?

(she asks, innocently)

[rockybelt]

6. I

can't see any problem here.

[comtec]

7. oh my THAT's gonna piss some people off

The kurds to start with...

[IndianaGreen]

8. The treasonous Kurds will find the Shia less forgiving than the Sunnis

The Shia won't allow the Kurds to secede from Iraq, and they will use force if need be to keep their country together.

Americans wouldn't tolerate someone that behaved like the Iraqi Kurds to operate with impunity in our own country.

[Disturbed]

9. Most Kurds are Muslims- Shiites & Sunnis.

Is the oil deal with Busholini's buddy Hunt, null & void?

[aquart]

10. The freedom loving Kurds crave a Kurdish state.

They desire separation from the artificial entity known as Iraq.

And you would say them nay?

[Supersedeas]

11. Hunt Oil and other Bush cronies won't be happy about this

[rodeodance]

12. Iraq's oil and gas bill is stalled in the national parliament amid bitter differences between rival

Iraq's oil and gas bill is stalled in the national parliament amid bitter differences between rival factions.

When approved, the new law will open up Iraq's long state-dominated oil and gas sector to foreign investment.

It will also stipulate that receipts be shared equally between Iraq's 18 provinces, a key concern for the Sunni Arab minority that Washington says has fuelled the anti-American insurgency.

Iraq's oil reserves -- the world's third largest -- lie in the Kurdish north and Shiite south and the Sunnis fear the two communities could monopolise future income.