Big Oct. Conference.

In the past few years, Iraq's petroleum sector has been featured in numerous conferences aimed at linking top government officials with the global energy industry, all of which have taken place outside Iraq. In October 2008, the Iraqi American Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IACCI) and the Oil Ministry will bring the meeting home - a first event at the new convention centre at the rebuilt Baghdad International Airport.

The Iraq Energy Expo, www.iraqenergyexpo.com, is expected to be attended and opened by Iraq's Kurdish President Jalal Talabani and PM Maliki. The I-ACCI, with offices in Los Angeles, San Diego, Washington, Amman, and throughout Iraq, says it is working to create "new business through networking forums, and building the capacity of key Iraqi private and public sector elements that are necessary to growing the overall national capacity to support a vital private sector in Iraq". CEO Ra'd Omar says the event will bring the biggest names in Iraqi oil. The Oil Ministry "will cover all projects, needs [and] each company within [the Oil Ministry] will have its head in attendance".

About 65 Oil Ministry engineers and managers will deliver technical papers. Speakers will include Thamer Ghadhban, PM Maliki's adviser and former oil minister, and other top experts on Iraqi petroleum. There will be emphasis on Iraq's upstream and downstream investment opportunities.

Oil Ministry spokesman 'Asem Jihad on April 21 was quoted as saying all oil deals signed by Saddam's regime had been "cancelled" and the companies involved must bid for the fields again. This was a change in policy, as the ministry had said four deals still carried legal weight and, although they would have to be brought in line with the proposed new petroleum law, would still be honoured. These are with the state-owned ONGC of India, CNPC of China, Pertamina of Indonesia and PetroVietnam that were considered valid and were reportedly under negotiation.

Pending the passage of a new petroleum law by parliament, Iraq is relying on Saddam-era regulations. The Bush administration has pushed hard for Iraqi politicians to speed up work on getting a draft law passed, while MPs are still squabbling over E&P terms, the way petroleum revenues are to be distributed among the provinces, and the authority of provincial governments versus that of the central oil ministry.

Confusion Over Kurdish Rights: On April 21 Dr. Shahristani, a Shi'ite minister who is a widely respected scientist, said EPSA between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and foreign companies remained invalid, despite recent amicable talks between the two sides over the proposed federal petroleum law. The KRG has signed around 25 EPSAs with several small and mid-sized oil companies; but Shahristani said they did not meet the conditions of the draft 2007 law. "We do not recognise them", Shahristani told reporters on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum in Rome.

UPI on April 16 reported government spokesman Dabbagh as confirming that Baghdad and the KRG had agreed on the proposed federal petroleum law and a method for weighing the validity of KRG's EPSAs. Dabbagh said an agreement had also been reached on the classification and funding for the Kurds' security forces, the Peshmerga, which will be within the Iraqi Ministry of Defence. He said the two sides agreed to allow a UN process on determining the future of oil-rich Kirkuk and other territories to play out.

Az-Zaman daily and Sawt al-Iraq (Voice of Iraq) news agency had earlier reported that Baghdad had agreed to KRG's EPSAs and stance on the petroleum law in return for a delayed vote on Kirkuk.

Dabbagh said the agreement was on a version of the petroleum law approved by key KRG and central government leaders in February 2007. But the deal was foiled by an Oil Ministry decision to classify Iraq's discovered oilfields and exploration blocks, detailing authority for development between the central government and producing provinces and regions in a manner with which the Kurds disagreed. It was further altered by the Shoura Council, a legislative review body, which led to increased tension and multiple versions of the law.

The KRG made unilateral moves in the petroleum sector of its three-province region. Since 2004 the KRG has signed EPSAs. Most were signed in 2007, as was a KRG petroleum law, prompting Dr Shahristani to call the EPSAs illegal and threaten to blacklist any firms which has KRG deals from gaining contracts for the rest of Iraq. None of those firms made the shortlist of those allowed to submit bids in the first tendering round.

The February 2007 draft law establishes a federal oil and gas council to serve as a policy-making body. Dabbagh said the council would decide national versus local control over oil and gas fields and exploration blocks, and the legitimacy of the KRG deals.

Dabbagh added: "This is going to be reviewed and is going to be checked whether they are workable with the new law or not. If not they should be amended in order to have them matching with the new regulation of the petroleum law". He said a revenue-sharing law and legislation reconstituting the Iraqi National Oil Co. (INOC) and re-organising the Oil Ministry will "be passed simultaneously [with the law] and as a sort of compromise package".

He said there were still issues to iron out before an agreement was finalised. Kirkuk, an area just outside the current KRG territory, is among land in dispute. The Kurds say it is historically theirs and insist that wrongs perpetrated by Saddam's Sunni/Ba'thist dictatorship, such as forced removal of people and district redrawing, should be reversed. Arabs and Turkomans dispute the Kurds' claim.

The 2005 constitution called for a referendum allowing the voters in the disputed territories to decide their future by end-2007. Political and technical hurdles still have not been cleared. The UN in December brokered a six-month extension but is likely to need more time. The UN was to announce a plan in May.

"Nothing has been agreed yet", Dabbagh said amid reports that this issue was part of the KRG-central government parley over the petroleum law. The Council of Ministers must approve the law before it is passed to parliament for final consideration, which is to include heightened deliberations as there is not one view on either the decentralisation or privatisation issues. Many favour continuation of a central government-guided petroleum strategy with production and exports under Iraqi control.

The Peshmerga will be funded based on "certain principles", Dabbagh said. There had been a row over whether the KRG should fund the force from the revenue redistributed to it from the central government or from another source from Baghdad. He said: "It's going to be a support from the budget directly. ...There will be...battalions and divisions created in Kurdistan, it will be under the order of the Ministry of Defence".

KRG PM Nechirvan Barzani on April 21 was quoted as saying talks in Baghdad on key issues, including the law, showed "positive...co-operation and progress". He said the KRG and the central had met in Baghdad "to discuss the mechanism of relations between our two bodies as partners in the governance of Iraq, the advancement of our political process and various other issues regarding the future of Iraq".

The law's February 2007 version was derailed in part by the Oil Ministry announcing four lists categorising control over the discovered oil and gas fields and the exploration blocks, which the KRG opposed. Now, according to Barzani and Dabbagh, the proposed federal oil and gas council will decide those and other matters. Barzani said when the Council of Ministers has approved the law, three related laws - revenue sharing, re-establishing INOC and restructuring the Oil Ministry - would be bundled with it and sent to parliament. But by April 26, the Oil Ministry was still saying KRG's EPSAs were not legitimate and there was no consensus on the law.