Iraqi officials wrangle with Kurds over oil law

BAGHDAD, Jan 23 (Reuters) Senior Iraqi officials will meet again today in an effort to resolve a last-minute hitch in plans to present a landmark law on the oil industry to cabinet this week, senior government sources said.

Since the Oil Ministry announced last week that the Oil Committee, comprising cabinet ministers and regional leaders, had finalised a deal, officials from the Kurdish regional government have demurred, saying they were still dissatisfied.

One senior member of the committee told Reuters today that after a meeting late yesterday he was confident that the dispute would be resolved.

The draft law is characterised by the Iraqi and US governments as vital to secure billions of dollars of foreign investment to revive Iraq's oil industry and to dampen ethnic and sectarian conflicts over the distribution of revenues.

The draft, as released by the Oil Ministry last week, gives the national government a right of review over existing contracts signed under former President Saddam Hussein or by the Kurdish regional government.

Kurdish officials say the wording does not satisfy their demand that existing contracts be reviewed only by the regional government itself to ensure that they conform with the new draft regulations.

Among such contracts, one is with Norway's DNO .

Some Kurdish officials have told Reuters that the Oil Committee, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih who is himself a leading Kurdish politician, pushed through the draft last week without consulting them.

REUTERS DKA DS1325