Iraq asks Obama to halt Exxon's Kurdish deal

BAGHDAD/LONDON (Reuters) - Iraq has asked U.S. President Barack Obama to stop Exxon Mobil exploring for oil in its autonomous Kurdistan region, saying the U.S. company's actions could have dire consequences for the country's stability.

An aide to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told Reuters of a letter the premier had sent, seeking Obama's intervention, as Kurdistan said on Tuesday it would sign more deals with majors to raise its output five-fold.

Maliki, after aligning himself with the Iranians, is about to be booted. He's scrambling for anything.

The Kurds on the other hand have it going on. They have 3 different chain hotels being built. You can walk around Kurdistan without having to worry about getting blow to bits. And they are encouraging tourism.

But since obama has no trouble meddling in anything he wants, there's no doubt he'll meddle in this.

Iraq’s oil minister said in April that Exxon had written to Baghdad informing it that it had suspended work in the Kurdish region.

“Despite Exxon’s letters about their freezing of their work in the region, we still receive information that suspicious work is going on relating to their exploration activities,” Moussawi said.

The KRG announced in November the signing of a deal for six exploration blocs with Exxon, the first major oil company to deal directly with the Kurds in northern Iraq.

Exxon is one of the oil majors participating in massive projects intended to make Iraq the world’s biggest source of new oil over the next few years, but the U.S. company’s decision to sign a deal with the KRG has infuriated Baghdad.

Exxon was banned by the central government from competing in the country’s fourth bidding round because of the deals it had signed with Kurdistan to explore in their region and some disputed areas.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/19/iraq-oil-exxon-idUSL5E8HJFLJ20120619

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