Cheney's gonna be pissed

Kurds are going to try and block the Iraq oil law:

Iraq's Kurdish region has said it will try to block a draft oil law in parliament, raising the stakes in a row with the central government.

The Kurdistan autonomous region backed the draft law in February but has disputed annexes to it that would give control of oilfields to a new state-run oil company.

Ashti Hawrami, minister of natural resources in Kurdistan, said: "These annexes are unconstitutional and will not be supported by the Kurdish regional government in the federal parliament."

The Kurdistan autonomous region could be on a collision course with Baghdad over the US-backed draft.

The threat to fight the bill in Iraq's national parliament comes just days after the oil ministry in Baghdad warned regions against signing contracts until the law was passed.

Kurds say not so fast, buster!

Signing away one's own country's resources to foreign oil companies is all well and good, but even an idiot knows to get their promises to share in writing!

IRBIL, Iraq, Jan. 24 Iraqi Kurdish officials say a deal has not been struck for a federal hydrocarbons law despite the oil ministry's assurance the law would be voted on soon.

Kurdistan Regional Government Oil Minister Ashti Hawrami told the Financial Times the relatively stable oil-producing northern region has not agreed to the oil law.

Several issues are not still resolved, Hawrami said. The ministry of oil statement is unfortunately premature.Negotiations over a law governing all of Iraq's oil and natural gas production have been ongoing for months. It is stuck on control and revenue sharing between the central and regional government.

The Kurds and some of the Shiites in the south, where most of Iraq's 115 billion barrels of proven oil reserves are, want more of a regional control. KRG officials say they want the final say on all future contracts while the central government wants to have complete control.

The KRG also wants an automatic mechanism for sharing revenue from oil and natural gas sales, which has not been finalized yet.

Hawrami said more meetings are set for next week.