Posted on 04/05/2008 5:23:37 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
BAGHDAD - A parliamentary committee is working on a pair of oil-related draft bills, one to re-establish the state-run oil company and another to fight oil smuggling, a senior lawmaker said Saturday.
Abdul-Hadi al-Hassani, deputy chairman of the committee on oil, gas and natural resources, said legislation to re-establish the Iraqi National Oil Co., was likely to be presented to parliament on Tuesday.
The measure is part of a package which also includes legislation to regulate the country's oil sector, reorganize the Oil Ministry and distribute revenues among Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish regions.
Al-Hassani said he was uncertain when the other bills in the package would be ready for parliament to discuss.
The bill to regulate the oil industry has been bogged down since February 2007 because of opposition from the Kurds, who fear losing control over the oil riches in their semiautonomous northern region.
Al-Hassani said parliament also began discussing a separate anti-smuggling bill this week.
The law would call for tight penalties against oil smugglers ranging from fines to years in prison and confiscation to boats that are used for smuggling.
He said that there is no accurate study on how much Iraq loses due to oil smuggling but his committee estimates the figure at nearly 10 percent of total revenue — or about $5 billion a year.
The Iraqi oil sector has been hampered by decades of neglect and lack of investment during Saddam Hussein's rule. Since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, attacks on oil infrastructure have held back production, which recovered prewar levels only at the end of last year.
Iraq sits on the world's third-largest oil reserves, totaling more than 115 billion barrels. Its average production for February was 2.4 million barrels per day and exports averaged 1.93 million barrels per day.
If the HydroCarbon Law can be passed and implemented, it will be the second to last major initiative required by the Benchmarks. The last being Article 140 (Kirkuk). The Democrats would run out of things to complain about.
This is the latest iteration but a report I read today isn’t optimistic about this one either. Hope it’s wrong.
I don’t want them rushing into it. Maliki has gained street credibility with Sunnis for his crackdown on Sadr’s JAM. They’ve already approved the Reconciliation Law (allowing some Ba’athists back into society), a Provincial Election Law (October elections I think is what they are thinking), and a Budget. Hydrocarbon and Article 140 are the remaining outstanding issues.
“The Democrats would run out of things to complain about.”
The democrats aren’t clever enough to complain about details of the occupation. They cannot accept the endeavor was not a failure to begin with, that doesn’t fit their anti-American roots. They will continue to to talk about WMD.
In Britain there is more conversation about the nitty gritty of the occupation than here. The Democrats, if they weren’t reflexively anti-American, could have humiliated Bush into taking action such as ordering this oil sharing YEARS ago.
This is more on what we were discussing a few days ago. The Iraqis are getting closer to settling the toughest political issues on their plate.
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