AFP reported that an Iraqi Kurdish minister sought to allay the Baghdad government's concerns about an oil exploration deal his region signed with ExxonMobil saying it benefits the whole country.

Iraq's central government regards any oil contracts not signed with it as invalid and officials have said the deal the US energy giant agreed with Kurdistan last month jeopardizes its contract for a massive southern oil field.

Mr Ashti Hawrami Kurdistan's minister of natural resources said that "I think that ExxonMobil's entry to Kurdistan is not just good news for the Kurdistan region, it's good news for all of Iraq because they bring in more investment into Iraq, into this part of Iraq. The contract was signed completed on October 18th 2011 after the oil and gas council of the region, headed by the prime minister met and approved a package for ExxonMobil."

Mr Hawrami said that "It is a binding contract; it involves six exploration areas. It is up to Exxon whether it runs all its operations from Baghdad or sets up another office in Kurdistan. We don't mind where they run their operations from they run Kurdistan from Baghdad, or set up a separate office here."

The office of Mr Hussein al Shahristani, Iraq's deputy prime minister for energy said that "The Iraqi government will deal with any company that breaks the laws in the same way that it has in (the) past and ExxonMobil has been notified of this."

(Sourced from AFP)