A landmark oil and gas law under debate in Iraq for nearly 15 years could end Baghdad’s chronic rifts with Kurdistan as it includes joint management of oil fields in the Northern province, an Iraqi Kurdish party official has said.

Biar Taher, a member of the Kurdish Democratic Party, one of the largest parties in Kurdistan, said disputes between the two governments involve mainly revenues from oil exports by Kurdistan.

“We believe that the new oil and gas law will once and for all resolve the Baghdad-Irbil dispute, which has continued for more than 10 years,” he told Iraq’s Aliqtisad News.

Taher said Kurdistan insists that only oil wells discovered before 2005 are subject to joint management while those developed after that date must be under the sole management of Kurdistan. “The new law could provide a solution to this problem.”

Iraq, a founding OPEC member, controls nearly 145 billion barrels of recoverable crude deposits.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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