Page 8 - MEOG Week 29

MEOG PoLICy MEOG
Hawrami removed as Kurdish oil minister
KUrdIstan
THe oil minister of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, Ashti Hawrami, has been removed from his post and given an advisory role in the cabinet of new Prime Minister Masrour Barzani. Law- makerSirwanBabanwasquotedbyreuterson July 21 as saying that there remained “di erences between the key political parties over who will succeed Hawrami”.
In his new role, Hawrami will advise Barzani on energy a airs and “help run the energy port- folio until a new minister is appointed”, Baban added. He had headed up the Ministry of natu- ral resources since 2006, during which time he spearheaded Kurdistan’s development of its own oil and gas assets.
Hawrami is a member of the Kurdistan regional Government’s (KrG’s) oil and Gas Council, which is the nal decision-maker on strategy and contracts within the sector.
In June, the Barzani family tightened its grip on power with Masrour’s appointment as Prime Minister and his cousin nechirvan becoming President. While the pair now hold the offi- cial top spots in government, Masrour’s father Masoud remains the kingpin.
Masoud Barzani resigned from o ce in late 2017 following his failed independence push, which saw Iraqi forces move in to take control of the key Kirkuk oil elds.
Tensions remain between the Barzani-run ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Talabani family’s Patriotic Union of Kurdis- tan (PUK).
e KDP’s nechirvan won 68 votes from the 81 members present in the 111-seat chamber in late May, with the PUK and new Generation Movement having boycotted the election.
Meanwhile on June 11, Masoud, also nom- inated by the KDP, was elected prime minis- ter a er winning 87 votes from the 97 MPs in attendance. e two Islamic parties Komal and the KIU abstained.
In mid-June, Kurdish news agency rudaw quoted Bashir Haddad, second deputy speaker
of the Iraqi parliament and member of the KDP, as saying that if the KrG failed to meet these obligations, the federal government would “cut a part of the budget for investments and projects proportionaltothatamount.”
He suggested that the KrG show ‘goodwill’ and ‘commitment’ to Baghdad by shipping oil through SoMo in order to secure its share in the 2020 budget, adding that Kurdistan had failed to ful l the obligation since the budget was passed.
Meanwhile, Jamal Kochar, a Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) MP, was quoted as saying: “If we don’t give anything to [Iraqi Prime Min- ister] Adil Abdul-Mahdi, he will surely not do anything for us in dra ing the 2020 budget.”
Kochar suggested sending 100,000 bpd in July, 150,000 bpd in August, 200,000 bpd in September and then 250,000 bpd during each of october, november and December, in order to ensure Kurdistan’s negotiating position when it comes to discussing the budget for 2020.
According to reports in late March, nego- tiations remained ongoing between the two authorities, with erbil said to be pleading an ina- bility to hand over the revenues at present owing to the depth of the territory’s scal di culties.
In late June, Barzani met with Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi in Baghdad, agree- ing to “resolve outstanding issues based on the constitution and to convene a joint commit- tee next week to negotiate oil, the budget, the peshmerga forces and Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution, concerning a census in Kirkuk”, according to Al Monitor.
e KrG has not published production g- ures since the agreement came into force, so where the output cuts are falling is unclear, but the implication at the time Baghdad entered the deal was that the curbs would be applied to fed- erally governed production.
e scal plan provides for record spending of $111.5bn and projects a $23bn de cit on the basis of assumed exports of 3.88mn bpd at an average sale price of $56 per barrel.™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 29 23•July•2019