Iraq’s Oil Law May Be Pushed Till End of 2012, Ghadhban Says
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Iraq’s proposed energy law, intended to spur foreign investment in the world’s fifth-largest holder of oil deposits, will be delayed for the rest of this year due to political divisions, the prime minister’s top adviser said.
The draft law, held up since 2005, may resolve a dispute about oil revenue and sovereignty between the central government and the country’s semi-autonomous Kurds that has blocked an agreement with Exxon Mobil Corp., Thamir Ghadhban said in an interview in Baghdad. Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq angered the government by signing a separate contract with Exxon, which operates one of the nation’s largest oil fields.