Iraqi deputy prime minister Barham Salih said recently that the country’s main political factions have reached a deal on dividing up oil and gas cash.
“Remarkably, we have been able to settle oil revenues,” said Salih in a video conference from Baghdad with Washington-based reporters.
However, differences still remain over who will hand out lucrative oil contracts, he said.
Strategic Forecasting, a private US intelligence service said: “That Salih, a Kurdish Iraqi official, announced this without revealing any of the details of the agreement suggests that a solid deal on revenue sharing is still far off.
With sectarian violence on the rise and the political process in Baghdad breaking down, the Kurds are not in a position to offer substantial concessions to the Sunnis on oil revenues, particularly in Kirkuk, and will maintain the right to control newly discovered oil fields in northern Iraq.”
Salih did not give details on how oil revenues would be split or which regions would get the most money.
US president George Bush has said that the Iraqi government should set up a trust fund to share the country’s oil money with its citizens.
“We have the danger of oil turning into a divisive issue that everyone will fight over.
By agreeing to share the revenue we have the potential of turning oil into a unifying element in Iraq society,” Salih said.
There have been major disputes over who controls oil and gas fields and their revenues.
The semi-autonomous Kurdish regional government in the north which recently banned the flying of Iraq’s national flags from government buildings has signed oil deals with foreign firms, ignoring the federal government and raising fears that the deals could pour even more fuel on the fire of the nation’s conflict.
The Sunnis who are concentrated in resource-poor central Iraq, fear the Kurds and Shi’ites may keep export and exploration cash for themselves.
But Salih was optimistic about resolving who should be responsible for assigining new oil contracts.
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