KRG’s oil and gas exploration is constitutional: Kurdistan Judicial Council

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Region’s highest judicial authority issued a statement on Saturday declaring that the Kurdish government’s search for oil and gas in its territory accords with the 2005 Iraqi Constitution.

“The provisions of Law No. 22, 2007, issued by the Kurdistan Regional Parliament, do not violate the Iraqi Constitution and therefore should be recognized as standing laws,” asserted Chief Judge Abdul Jabbar Aziz Hassan, President of the Judicial Council of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

In a ruling on Feb. 15, the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court contended that the Kurdistan Region’s oil and gas deals are “unconstitutional”. 

Since then, Baghdad has attempted to put more legal and political pressure on the Kurdistan Region and the foreign oil companies operating there.

The KRG has strongly opposed the court’s claim of “unconstitutionality,” asserting that it has practiced its rights in accordance with the articles of the constitution. 

Read More: Kurdistan Region judiciary rules KRG oil, gas dossier ‘constitutional’ 

“The oil and gas sector do not fall under the exclusive purview of the Federal Government of Iraq, as stated in Article 110 of the Iraqi Constitution,” Judge Hassan said.

He said this is “underpinned by Article 112 of the Iraqi Constitution which states the Federal Government is to manage oil and gas exploration of discovered fields, in conjunction with regional governments and oil-producing provinces. Of that, revenues are supposed to be distributed equally among the population of Iraq.”

Judge Hassan added that article 112 refers to existing oil wells and fields, discovered before the ratification of the Iraqi Constitution in 2005. 

“As such, oil fields discovered in the Kurdistan Region since 2005 fall under the jurisdiction of the Kurdistan Region and the Kurdistan Regional Government. Accordingly, the texts of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Oil and Gas Law No. 22, 2007, remain in line with the provisions of the Iraqi Constitution.”

Judge Hassan underlined that past Iraqi governments have made “regions unduly suffer and deprived them of their fair share of the revenue from oil and gas exploration in Iraq, limiting their progress and opportunities to prosper. The allocation of national oil and gas revenues should be regulated by law to prevent this from happening again.”

Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani has defended the legality and constitutionality of the dossier on several occasions and reiterated that outstanding problems between Erbil and Baghdad should be resolved through dialogue.