Iraqi Oil Specialists Criticize New National Oil Law as Unconstitutional

A number of Iraqi oil specialists have criticized the government's proposed new national oil law as "unconstitutional," castigating attempts by the federal government to be the sole distributor of the nation's oil wealth.

Iraqi Market Center director Ali Kah Gih said, "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."

Gih noted that Article 112 of the Iraqi Constitution says that "the federal government, with the producing governorates and regional governments, shall undertake the management of oil and gas," but ambiguity occurs because Article 112 is intermediate between Articles 109- 110 which define the fields of exclusive federal authority and Article 114, which defines the fields of shared authority, making Article 112 with its vague wording a political football, utilized by both federal and regional authorities to strengthen their positions, AKnews news agency reported.

Iraqi Economic Forum economic analyst and member Karim al-Mawla stated, "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." 

By. Charles Kennedy, Deputy Editor OilPrice.com