KRG Ministry of Natural Resources

20 September 2011

Erbil, Kurdistan Region - (KRG.org) Iraq - As part of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s ongoing transparency initiative, the Ministry of Natural Resources is putting all signed production sharing contracts (PSCs) for oil and gas in the Kurdistan Region into the public domain.
 
The move, announced today by Minister of Natural Resources Ashti Hawrami, means that the PSCs, their attachments and amendments are now available to read online at the government website www.krg.org.
 
Dr Hawrami said, “The Kurdistan Region Oil and Gas Council, headed by Prime Minister Barham Salih, has decided to take the next step in implementing our policy of transparency and commitment to freedom of information in Kurdistan’s oil and gas sector, in line with the Region’s oil and gas law of 2007.”
 
The fresh release of documents follows the previous publication of the PSCs for the producing oil fields at Tawke and Taq Taq.
 
Dr Hawrami said that the originals of all PSC contracts have been submitted to the Energy Committee of the Kurdistan Parliament.
 
“These contracts have put the Kurdistan Region of Iraq firmly on the global energy map, and have helped to internationalise the economy here after years of enforced isolation,” Dr Hawrami said. “As a result, we now know that the Region has potential reserves of 45 billion barrels of oil and 3-6 trillion cubic meters of gas. We are exporting oil from the Region for the first time, with export capacity reaching 200,000 barrels per day by the end of the year.”
 
Dr Hawrami added, “Our citizens can see that these contracts have provided the right balance between risk and reward, attracting world class international oil companies from 18 different countries. Billions of dollars of inward investment have come to Kurdistan as a result; thousands of jobs have been created; the provision of electricity has vastly improved; and the exploration and discovery process has resulted in discoveries of oil and gas that will continue to benefit the people of Kurdistan and Iraq for decades to come.”

Most of the contracts will be available to view today, the rest will be uploaded over the next few days. To access the contracts please click here.

The contracts, their amendments and attachments are organized by block name.

Click on a document and it will open in a new window. Some of the files are quite large, so patience is required if you have a slow connection.