As HE Dr Rowsch Nuri Shaways, the Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq, confirmed yesterday, we have agreed to set up a number of joint committees with our colleagues in the federal government to try to move toward the passage of a federal hydrocarbons law, based on the Constitution to regulate the relationship between the federal authorities and the Regions and producing governorates on the management of oil and gas resources.
As most of you know, the KRG passed its own oil and gas law in 2007, which sets out the Region’s constitutional rights with respect to its oil and gas resources.
As important, if not more, to Iraq’s stability and unity is the passage of a federal revenue sharing law as set out in Article 112 of the Constitution.
Both the hydrocarbons law and the revenue sharing law are Constitutional requirements and will be the pillars of stability and unity in Iraq.
In this regard, I would like to highlight another important and decisive law which was passed in April by the Kurdistan parliament.
Law no 5 of 2013, “The Law of Identifying and Obtaining Financial Dues to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq from Federal Revenue.”
This was a necessary piece of legislation which, in light of Prime Minister Barzani’s recent visit to Baghdad, forms the legal basis for the settlement of all outstanding financial and budgetary issues between the KRG and Baghdad.
Essentially, the law outlines a mechanism for defining and then obtaining the outstanding revenues owed to the Kurdistan Region by the federal government since 2004.
“Sadly, 29 trillion dinars later, Iraq has only solved a few of its electricity problems. The Kurdistan Region, however, has spent less than 1 trillion Iraqi dinars and enjoys near round-the clock power“
Yes it is a SAD story for many and ALL Kurdish officials to repeatedly (and foolishly) remind us that KRG enjoys round-the clock power compared to the rest of Iraq… Let us examine that argument in more detail… The KRG (comprising of 3 provinces) with a population of 5+ million inhabitants consumes power (without telling us how much power gets imported from Turkey and Iran yearly) of 2.5 GW compared to the rest of Iraq (15 provinces) and a population of 30+ million inhabitants that requires 15 GW (projected to reach 20 GW) a task that takes many years and billions of dollars to be attained and realized since the destruction of the old Iraqi power grid in 1991 in desert storm, desert fox and all sorts of desert crap by BUSH father, son and family!!
Yes we (ALL the Iraqis) are proud of the progress in the federally governed and administered region of Iraqi-Kurdistan and we applaud the Kurdish people and their officials over there and we wish them more success in the near future, but that success must not and cannot be compared with the rest of Iraq and Iraqis
When you hear these Kurdish officials (Like Mr. Hawrami) giving speeches and attend conferences valuing the KRG (aside from Iraq) and instead putting down the rest of Iraq (The argument of I look better than you is utterly childish and naive)
You also get a sense about these people who obviously care less for Iraq or Iraqis. We ask the question “What Have these people done for the rest of Iraq and the Iraqis since 2003” aside from ruling and administering their three provinces from Iraq’s generous 17% income and keeping their 3 provinces safe , secure and prosperous???
These people keep referring us (in their speeches) to the ill-written, ill-fated, doomed and decrepit constitution, written and passed in 2005 (under US occupation) by an inexperienced 27 year old American Jew named “Noah Feldman” who instilled prejudice, division, sectarianism and all sorts of awkward seeds in that constitution for the future of IRAQ’s political scene to be never solved and to have a never ending solution and for more continuous political, economical and societal complications!!!
Yes, we live in a SAD and a pathetic world to the extreme
Here is a tidbit information that “Mr. Hawrami” does not mention in his speech and instead he simplify it by saying “The Kurdistan Region has spent less than 1 trillion Iraqi dinars and enjoys near round-the clock power“, “Mr. Hawrami” also failed to mention that a real and a true Iraqi businessman is behind that success in Kurdistan
“Majid Hamid Jafar” is a United Arab Emirates (UAE) businessman of Iraqi origin. He is the CEO of Crescent Petroleum, the Middle East's oldest private oil and gas company, headquartered in the UAE and with offices in the UK and Internationally. He is also Vice-Chairman of the Crescent Group of Companies, which includes interest in energy, transportation, logistics, private equity and real estate sectors, and is the Managing Director of the Board of Dana Gas (PJSC), the first regional, private sector integrated natural gas Company in the Middle East, in which Crescent Petroleum is the largest shareholder.
Together, Crescent Petroleum and Dana Gas have invested over $1bn in the oil and gas sector in Iraq's Kurdistan region, producing over 340 million cubic feet of gas and 15,000 barrels of condensate per day and enabling almost continuous electricity in the main cities in Iraq's Kurdistan region.
Majid Jafar is the eldest son of Hamid Jafar, founder of Crescent Petroleum, and is a grandson of Dhia Jafar, a prominent politician and Cabinet Minister in the last decade of Iraq’s monarchy during the reign of King Faisal II until 1958.
Now that is what we call some real Iraqi Business news that makes all of Iraqis proud