AK News reported that several high ranking Iraqi oil experts got involved in the current dispute over the distribution of the country's oil revenues and criticized what they called the marginalization of the provinces.

The experts said that the recent oil law and attempts by the federal government to be the sole distributor of the oil wealth were against the constitution.

Mr Ali Kah Gih director of the Iraqi Market Center said that "The Iraqi Constitution says, that the federal government and the provinces and governorates where oil is produced have to work together to produce and export the oil. If the provinces may not participate, this is against the law."

Article 112 of the Iraqi Constitution says indeed, that the federal government, with the producing governorates and regional governments, shall undertake the management of oil and gas. However, article 112 is placed right between the articles 109 to 110 which define the fields of exclusive federal authority, and article 114 which defines the fields of shared authority. Thus, article 112 with its vague wording, is quoted by both sides, federal and regional authorities, to strengthen their individual position.

Under the Erbil Agreement, by which the political leaders agreed to form a national-partnership government in 2010, an agreement should be reached over a new oil law. A draft, that was passed this year, sparked tensions between the federal and the Kurdish government.

The Kurds accused the federal government of passing the draft law without taking the Kurdish opinion into consideration. On the other hand, Baghdad criticized Erbil for signing contracts with international oil companies without the consent of the federal Oil Ministry.

Mr Karim a Mawla an economic analyst and member of the Iraqi Economic Forum believe Iraq should never have abandoned the oil law that was made in 2007. The Iraqi government ignored the oil and gas draft law of 2007 which had been the result of a consensus. The recent draft law now was against the constitution.

Mr Farhad Amin al Atrushi member of the parliamentary Energy Commission denied the allegations that the federal government would marginalize the provinces and regions.

He said that there is an agreement between the political blocs to expand the role of the regions and the provinces in the formulation of the country's oil policy. The new oil and gas law will make sure that the oil revenues are managed through collective government work.

The parliamentary Oil Commission is currently studying three drafts for a new oil law. According to committee members, the committee agreed to 90% of the drafts, except to those articles that deals with the distribution of the oil wealth.

A delegation of Kurdish politicians that visited Baghdad for negotiation over the oil law and other outstanding issues last week, said that although no decision were made, the negotiations were positive.

(Sourced from AK News)