SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The Kurdistan Region’s presidencies on Monday rejected Iraq’s federal court ruling on its oil and gas industry, saying the Region would continue to exercise its constitutional rights on the matter.
On February 15, the Iraqi federal court deemed an oil and gas law regulating the oil industry in the Kurdistan Region unconstitutional and demanded the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) hand over their crude supplies.
The Region’s four presidencies held a meeting in Erbil on Monday to discuss the court ruling, which they deemed “unacceptable”.
“The Kurdistan Region will exhaust all available means in order to safeguard the Kurdistan Region’s constitutional power and rights,” they said in a statement.
They added the decision was linked to political disputes over the election of Iraq’s new president.
“The ruling is driven by special interests, especially at a time when Iraq is moving through a critical political stage,” they stated.
The KRG will continue to discuss the issues regarding the oil and gas law with the federal government, according to the statement.
The KRG has been developing oil and gas resources independently of the federal government, and in 2007 entered its own law that established the directives by which the Region would administer these resources.
KRG crude is exported through a pipeline that runs from Iraq’s Kirkuk region to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
Iraq’s federal government has long called for all oil exports in the country to go through it, having previously lashed out at Turkey in 2012 and 2014 for its role in refining and re-exporting oil produced in the Kurdistan Region.
