5/25/2007

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Iraq's Kurdish region is demanding that a proposed oil and gas law should ensure timely payment of oil revenues to the Kurds, Iraq's oil minister said on Friday.

Iraqi Hussain al-Shahristani, on an official visit to India, said the Kurds have not questioned the right of central government to collect oil revenues but want to ensure they get their share of oil revenues on time.

"We are negotiating a mechanism for release of their portion of the budget to them because they say that the federal ministry of finance sometime delays release of the portion of the budget that's allocated to them," Shahristani told reporters in New Delhi.

He added that the oil revenues could not be retained and will be distributed through the federal budget.

"Among the first stage it was agreed among all Iraqis, including Kurdish Regions Government Authority, that oil revenue will be collected in a federal reserve and will be distributed from the federal budget throughout the budget so nobody can retain them," he said.

On the proposed law ensuring that around 80 percent of oil reserves will be managed by the Iraqi National Oil Company, he said the discovered fields in Iraq were a small fraction of the total potential.

"So there is a much larger possibility for oil companies to find new fields and work on it," Shahristani said.

"Once you have discovered and we know what there is and we know what technology is required, we shall manage to do it from our own resources.

"There is no need really to offer them (for competitive bidding)," he added.

Iraq says Kurds want timely payment of oil revenue -  Source

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