ERBIL
By Hemn Baban, Muhammet Kursun
Iraqi parliament will set up an "oil commission" to keep track of income from Kurdish Regional Government’s oil sales.
The “oil commission” will gather information from the Kurdish Natural Resources Ministry and report to the Iraqi parliament. The budgetary commission will later subtract the oil income from the overall budget of the region, said Rebwar Taha, a representative of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan Party.
The Kurdish Regional Government continues to sell oil to world markets from Ceyhan port of Turkey via the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline. The central government accuses the Kurdish regional government of violating the constitution which stipulates that oil sales be administered directly from the capital Baghdad whereas the Kurds insist that it is their right to sell oil for their people’s needs.
Due to the impasse on both sides, the Baghdad government has not made any transactions for the allocation of funds for Erbil in the past nine months. The Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi set conditions for Kurds in being transparent on oil shipments and requested Kurdish ministers to come to Baghdad.
Iraq’s President of the Assembly Selim Cuburi, however, said that they have taken important steps to resolve the conflict after his visit to Erbil earlier this month.
After the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's attacks and Maliki's stepping down from the prime ministry, the commission was set up as a means to resolve the conflict between the Erbil and Baghdad administrations.
The Kurdish Regional Government is showing willingness to divulge information on oil exports.
“The central administration must know the amount of oil sold, it is their right,” said Taha, adding “It cannot prepare a general budget if they do not take oil income into account. The regional government has to accept that. The Kurdish region is in deep economic crisis and our national security is under threat, and that is why the commission is important.”
The Kurdish parliament’s Natural Resources Commission deputy president Dilshad Saban told Anadolu Agency that they have given all information and documentation on oil shipment and sales.
“We invited the Baghdad government to follow up all the processes in transportation and sales, but the central administration did not accept it and it turned into a political problem. They see Kurds as secondary citizens,” Saban said.
She stated they are ready to share any information with Baghdad and declared that 14 oil tankers left Ceyhan so far with 200 thousand barrels of oil having been pumped daily. The income generated so far is one billion 200 thousand dollars, she added.
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