Iraq Finally on World Gas Map

The Iraqi council of ministers has finally given its final stamp of approval today for the first gas deal of its kind in Iraq’s energy history based on the agreement initialized on July 12 between Royal Dutch Shell, Mitsubishi and South Gas Co, to capture and process flared gas in southern Iraq. This deal would put Iraq on the global gas map, something long due in view of the country’s…

KRG And The Oil & Gas Law

The draft oil and gas law has been with the Council of Representatives since 2007 and was followed later by the INOC draft law. There were several reasons behind the legislative stalemate, but the main one is the request of the Kurdish parliamentary block to postpone the debate on oil legislation until an accord is reached regarding the pending issues in the oil and gas law. The main pending issues…

Wither INOC?

There is no chance that INOC draft law would be voted by parliament before the draft oil and gas law is legislated, according to Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani. Why? Because there is close linkage between the two laws as well as two other laws pending legislation; the oil ministry restructuring law and the revenue sharing law, “without which the state company would be paralyzed.” And that’s not all. There is…