Iraq's Kurdistan works to establish two oil firms as Erbil-Baghdad tensions rise

The commercial court sitting has been postponed twice as some of the representation for these international oil firms did not have power of attorney, several sources told Reuters.


Reuters | Updated: 17-06-2022 16:57 IST | Created: 17-06-2022 16:44 IST
Iraq's Kurdistan works to establish two oil firms as Erbil-Baghdad tensions rise
Representative Image. Image Credit: Flickr

Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is working to establish two oil companies, a spokesperson said on Friday. The KRG's new oil firm KROC would specialize in oil exploration, while the second - KOMO - would focus on oil exports and marketing from the semi-autonomous region.

The regional government has presented the idea and discussed it with the federal government in Baghdad recently, the KRG spokesperson said in a statement. The statement follows months of disputes between Erbil and Baghdad after a February federal court ruling that deemed the legal foundations of the Kurdistan region’s oil and gas sector unconstitutional.

The oil ministry in Baghdad has since made fresh attempts to control revenue from the Kurdistan region, including summoning seven firms operating there to a commercial court on May 19. The firms were Addax, DNO, Genel, Gulf Keystone, HKN, Shamaran, and WesternZagros. The commercial court sitting has been postponed twice as some of the representation for these international oil firms did not have power of attorney, several sources told Reuters. The court session is due to resume on Monday, June 20.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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