Ashti Hawrami

The Kurdistan Regional Government’s minister of natural resources, Ashti Hawrami, spoke to Ruba Husari in Erbil late July on the latest developments in Kurdistan’s upstream and downstream sector, the smuggling controversy, differences with Baghdad over crude exports and the fate of the federal hydrocarbon law. Q. What’s the status of the different contracts signed so far with the KRG and how is work progressing on the ground? A. We have…

$0.5 per barrel for the producing provinces: An equitable share or additional revenue?

In its 21st ordinary meeting held on 9th June 2009 the Council of Ministers-CoM in Iraq decided to propose a draft law which provide every producing province (Governorate) a 50 cent for every barrel of oil produced by it. The decision was said to be a fulfilment of Article 121 sub-paragraph “Three” of the Constitution regarding equitable revenue sharing. Apart from this brief note the CoM website provides no further…

Kurdish-Iraqi Oil Minister Spat Escalates

1 May 2007 A war of words between Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani and Kurdish Energy Minister Ashti Hawrami over who has the authority to sign contracts with foreign companies, and over the extent of the proposed new Iraqi national oil company’s control over the country’s oil fields, is threatening to derail the draft oil law approved by the Iraqi cabinet in February. Al-Shahristani last week warned foreign companies that…