SULAIMANI (ESTA) — State Organization for Marketing Oil in Iraq (SOMO) granted three-month permission for the international oil companies (IOCs) in the Kurdistan Region on Wednesday to halt their operations.
In the reliance of executing the Federal court’s decision, all international oil companies functioning in the Kurdistan Region must halt their operations in the course of three-month otherwise they would be blacklisted, and the Federal government would be free to take any measure against them, according to a draft published by (SOMO) on June 12.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has been developing oil and gas resources independently of the federal government, and in 2007 enacted its own law that established the directives by which the region would administer them.
But in February, Iraq’s federal court decided to invalidate the Kurdistan Region oil and gas law which grants independence to the region in terms of the energy sector from the central government.
Iraq’s federal court’s decision acknowledge the oil and gas industry as unconstitutional and demanded that the KRG hand over their crude supplies.
The Federal Court’s decision challenges the contracts that the region has made with the international oil firms it also gives the oil ministry in Baghdad the authority to manage oil and gas fields in Kurdistan.
However, the officials in the Kurdistan region have repeatedly refused to abide by the Federal Court’s decision.
