KRG Ministry of Natural Resources

Office of the KRG Spokesman 

9 September 2006, Erbil, Kurdistan - Iraq (KRG) - The Kurdistan Regional Government today published a final draft of the petroleum law for Kurdistan. This draft will be discussed by the KRG Council of Ministers and forwarded to the Kurdistan Parliament for its consideration. 

This draft has been revised following the 7 August publication on this website of the first draft, together with a proposed model production sharing agreement. The revisions have taken place following internal consultations in Kurdistan and Iraq, and also reflect the many helpful suggestions that the KRG has received from abroad. We express our thanks to the many organisations and individuals who have commented on these drafts. Please note that we also welcome comments on this revised draft, which we will endeavour to take into consideration as the law is discussed in Parliament. Upon its approval by Parliament, the Petroleum Act will also, naturally, be published. 

The revisions in the draft published today reflect, for the most part, the KRG's effort to describe in greater detail an appropriate co-operative arrangement on petroleum licencing, operation, and revenue sharing between the KRG and the federal government of Iraq. This description is contained in new Annexes A, B and C. There are also a number of technical and textual improvements to the draft. 

Over the next several days, an Arabic language version of this draft will be published on this website. The KRG will also soon publish a revised model production sharing agreement, the first draft of which has also attracted many very helpful comments. In addition, the KRG will table before the Iraq Petroleum Committee a draft petroleum law for Iraq, to be consistent with the Kurdistan law, and which will then be published. 

The matters will be the subject of a KRG-convened conference in London in the near future. Details of this meeting will be announced on this website in due course. 

Submit any further comments to spokesman(at)krg.org 

Download the final draft petroleum law here