SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The Kurdistan Region government initiated new legal action by filing a lawsuit in Erbil against Iraq’s Oil Ministry on Saturday.
The Region’s government filed a lawsuit in Erbil and thus might complicate the Iraqi oil ministry’s legal actions against the international oil firms that operate in the Kurdistan Region, according to ‘Iraqi oil report’.
The Legal battles stepped into a new phase over the independent energy sector in the Kurdistan Region after last week, meanwhile, as the court in Baghdad decided to postpone the hearings again.
“The Oil Ministry’s lawsuit against seven international oil companies (IOCs) operating in Kurdistan would be postponed until June 20, so that all of the defendants can be served with summonses and prepare the paperwork needed to send authorized representatives” a Judge of Baghdad’s Karkh Commercial Court Mohammed Ali Mahmoud Nadeem told ‘Iraqi oil report’.
On May 28, the federal oil ministry announced that the Iraqi government intends to review contracts signed by the Kurdistan Region with oil firms.
Kurdistan’s massive untapped oil reserves, lucrative production-sharing contracts, and safe environment have prompted international oil companies over recent years to commit to investing billions of dollars there.
But in February, Iraq’s federal court deemed the oil and gas law regulating the oil industry in Kurdistan unconstitutional and demanded that the Kurdish government hand over their crude supplies.
Iraq’s federal court’s ruling gives the oil ministry in Baghdad the authority to manage oil and gas fields in Kurdistan, it also challenges the contracts that the region has made with the international oil firms.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has rejected the court’s ruling.
