Dinar News

Iraq’s government has the political majority to pass a long-awaited oil law but will hold off until broader acceptance has been reached, which could take some time, Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih said on Wednesday.

The country’s central government agreed on a draft oil law early this year, under which control and revenue from Iraq’s oil reserves are to be shared among Baghdad and the provinces. But the law has since been stalled by political infighting.

“Most of the elements of the oil law are in place and if we were to decide to go to parliament and…present it any time soon, we probably can muster the political majority it needs to pass,” Salih said.

“But…we want this law to unify Iraqis, not to divide Iraqis. We will not want this law to pass (with) 51 percent of the vote. We have to have broad acceptance of this law and we have some work to do in that regard,” he added, during a discussion at international affairs think tank Chatham House.

Frustrated by delays and disagreements over amendments to the law, the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) approved its own oil law in August and has signed several contracts. In response, Iraq’s Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani has repeatedly said the contracts are illegal.

Asked whether he considered the KRG contracts to be legitimate, Salih, a Kurd, said: “It is not up to the ministry of oil to decide the legality of such contracts, it is for the constitutional court in Iraq to decide the legality or illegality of such contracts.”

Describing the oil law as “like a rollercoaster”, Salih said he believed Iraq could still succeed at courting investment from abroad in its oil sector, despite all the existing problems.

“The time has come for us to opt for a serious effort at drawing international investment in the Iraqi oil sector. We are still falling very, very short of the potential of Iraq in terms of production and export levels,” he said.

“Iraq, I believe, can do this thing. The way oil has been managed in Iraq has been no less than a disaster.”

US light, sweet crude for November delivery finished the day’s trading at $87.6 a barrel on Tuesday, a record close, after hitting an intraday high of $88.2 due to ongoing tensions between Turkey and Kurdish rebels in Iraq and worries over imminent military intervention, reported the AFP.

London Brent also reached a new all-time high of $84.5 during trading and closed on $84.2.

Prices of real estate in Basra are back to normal estimated now at values of other real estates after prices were lowered significantly earlier.

The drop was evaluated by 20% less than the actual value of real estates due to security deterioration in the city.

US light, sweet crude touched $84.1 a barrel on Friday before dipping to $83.7 by the close of trading, according to agency reports.

Concerns over possible military action by Turkey in northern Iraq and falling stockpiles in the US have stoked prices.

It is also feared Opec’s recent 500,000 barrels per day production hike will not be sufficient to meet US winter demand

Demand for the dollar was higher in the Iraqi Central Bank’s auction on Thursday, reaching $71.275 million compared to $24.680 million on Wednesday.

In its daily statement, the bank said it had covered all bids, including $18.445 million in cash and $52.830 in foreign transfers, at an exchange rate of 1,232 dinars per dollar, the same for the third consecutive day.

None of the 15 banks that participated in Thursday’s session offered to sell dollars.

In statements to the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI), Ali al-Yasseri, a trader, said that the significant increase in the demand for dollar is attributed to Eid al-Fitr (the Lesser Bairam) as the auction will be closed for several days.

The Iraqi Central Bank runs a daily auction from Sunday to Thursday