Baghdad The Parliamentary Oil and Energy Committee has revealed the fate of the oil and gas bill, which is still stalled, and has not seen the light during successive legislative sessions until now.

In a statement to the National Iraqi News Agency (NINA), the committee member, MP Ghaleb Muhammad Ali, stated that “the bill is political, and it will not pass in any legislative session of the House of Representatives without the agreement of the leaders of the political blocs.”

He added, “The main obstacle in approving the bill is the oil of the Kurdistan region, because according to Articles 111 and 112 of the Iraqi constitution, oil belongs to all Iraqis and any new fields are jointly managed by the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government, but the regional government does not take into account this constitutional text and it exports oil and seizes revenues without supervision.”

The House of Representatives is still seeking to pass one of the main stalled legislations since successive sessions until now, which is the draft oil and gas law, after the parliament’s presidency confirmed during the previous legislative term the importance of legislating the oil and gas law during the coming period.

Source: National Iraqi News Agency