Kurdistan Pressure For the Hydrocarbon Law

Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government signed four more Oil deals this week. The move comes only a week after the controversial deal involving Hunt Oil Company. Abdul-Hadi al-Hasani, deputy head of Parliament's Energy Committee, said

"It is unfortunate, really, the behavior that's taking place by the Kurdistan region,". "They're supposed to wait until the oil and gas law is to be passed by the Parliament."

It seemed possible that the failures of the grossly unfair Hydrocarbon Law, which the Bush Administration considers one of the key benchmarks of "success" in Iraq and would, in effect, privatize over 90% of Iraqi Oil reserves to multinational companies, could have an influence in Kurdistan making illegal regional deals. I wrote in an earlier diary concerning the Hunt deal that:

the greedy fervor that drives many of these oil companies may have finally found a way around the problem: pressure the Federal Authority by making... illegal regional deals.

Now take a look at the Kurdistan response to criticisms coming out of Baghdad:

Tensions between Baghdad and the KRG grew as the yearlong oil law negotiations continued. They severely escalated after the KRG announced the PSC with Hunt Oil, the first U.S. firm to enter Iraq since the war and the first contract since the Kurds passed their own regional oil law. Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani immediately called the deal "illegal" and said only the first four of the nearly 10 deals the KRG signed would be upheld.

The KRG responded in measure, saying Shahristani should either work harder to pass a federal law or resign. The KRG is a semiautonomous region in the north. Its own security force protects the area, which has seen little violence compared with the rest of the country since the war. As a result, it has had modest economic development and eyes the potential of the oil sector as a major step toward progress.

Dennis Kucinich has been the only candidate to speak out against the hydrocarbon law. In fact, a central part to Kucinich's withdraw plan from the region includes keeping the Iraqi Oil wealth a national revenue, instead of privatizing to these companies. Kucinich has been talking about Oil since the invasion back in 2002; citing it as the major reason for our attack. At the time his claim was ignored, just as his citing faulty intelligence and opposing the war itself.

We now know he was right about the intelligence report and, I would argue, the Oil too... Here's Kucinich over the summer talking about the Iraq, the Oil Law, his opposition and leadership against extending the war in Iran: