BAGHDAD — Iraqi Shiites have rejected Kurdish monopoly over oil resources in the north, saying that the country's natural resources should be solely managed by the central government.
"We as Shiites believe that oil should remain at the hands of the central government," Ali Kazem Al-Addad, a senior official with the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) told Islamonline.net, Tuesday, October 31.
Kurds sparked off the controversy after they ignored the central government and contracting foreign companies to explore for oil in the north.
"There is a constitutional loophole allowing provinces to explore for oil, invest in fields and monopolize vast resources in addition to the quotas prescribed by the central government," he said.
He added that this loophole will be redressed by the ad hoc committee formed by Iraqi political parities to redraft some contentious articles in the interim constitution.
Article 109 of the constitution stipulates that the central government shall co-manage oil and gas fields in coordination with provinces and oil-producing governorates.
It said oil and gas proceeds should be evenly distributed in accordance with the demography of all provinces.
The constitution also states that province that were marginalized by the ousted regime of Saddam Hussein should have certain oil and gas quotas that could be exploited for a specific period of time.
"We follow in the footsteps of our great authorities like late Mohammad Baqir Al-Sadr, who in 1970s ruled against monopolizing the country's oil and gas resources by any entity other than the state," Addad noted.
"Ayatollah Al-Al-Sistani (the top Shiite authority now in Iraq) also sees eye to eye with Sadr."
Nevertheless, Addad underlined that the Shiites must have 5-10% of the oil production in the south for 30-50 years as a compensation for many years of deprivation under Saddam Hussein.
"The quota, however, could be reconsidered in 10-20 years' time," he said.
Addad further sought to allay Sunni fears of a Shiite monopoly over oil if Iraq was divided into autonomous and federal regions as desired by the Shiites and the Kurds.
"The Sunnis regions are rich in natural resources; they have phosphate mountains in Ramadai and even uranium," he said.
"So the Arab Sunnis do have their share in the national wealth, and the central government also guarantees their oil quota demographically speaking," he said.
Kurdish Monopoly
Iraq's northern oil fields contain proven reserves of 45 billion barrels, it also holds for 100 trillion cubic feet of potential natural gas.
Iraqi and Kurdish officials locked horns in September after the latter gave the go-ahead for oil exploration in the north without consulting first with the central government.
Turkish-Canadian General Energy was contracted by Kurdish officials and had dug an oil field in Kuwaisank, 79 kilometers east of Arbil, which produces 5,000 barrels per day.
The company will further dig three oil fields with production capacity of 20,000 bpd by the end of this year, according to Rashid Khushan, the head Giant Ventures Authority in Iraq Kurdistan.
"Kurdistan will have the lion share," of the revenues, he said in press statements last month.
Well-placed sources said that the Kurds will have 90 percent of the production by the 25-year lucrative contract.
Iraqi political leaders agreed earlier this month to postpone until at least 2008 any effort to carve up the country into powerful autonomous states, easing concerns that Shiites would move quickly to split off into one large confederation in southern Iraq.
Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim, the powerful leader of SCIRI, called for carving out a nine-province state that would include most of the people and oil in southern Iraq.
Kurdish secessionist aspirations were much evident in September when Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani banned the flying of the Iraqi national flag over government buildings across Kurdistan.
Sunni Arabs are suspicious of the plan, believing that it is sure to rob them of their share of Iraq’s oil wealth.