ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – More than 100 international energy companies and 800 political and diplomatic figures are expected to attend the Kurdistan-Iraq Oil & Gas Conference 2013 in Erbil next month, notably coinciding with historic oil exports by the Kurds.
The four-day conference opens Sunday, just as the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq begins to export oil directly to Turkey through its newly-extended pipeline.
“More than 100 international oil and gas companies have registered to participate in this conference,” said Nawar Abdul Hadi, deputy president of the CWC Group which organizes international energy events. “More than 800 politicians and diplomats will participate,” he added.
With fundamental disagreements lingering for years between Erbil and the central government in Baghdad over oil issues, sources said that officials from the Iraqi oil ministry would not attend the conference. But the deputy prime minister of Iraq Roj Nuri Shawes, who is an ethnic Kurd, will participate.
Baghdad considers oil contracts signed directly by the KRG to be unconstitutional and insists that all deals must go through Baghdad. Erbil disagrees, citing constitutional clauses that allow local control over natural resources. It stresses that revenues will be shared with Baghdad, benefiting all Iraqis.
In the latest meeting with his cabinet this week, KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said he would be travelling to Baghdad to discuss Erbil’s oil export agreements with Turkey.
According to Abdul Hadi, a section of the conference will be dedicated to discussions about Kurdistan’s oil contracts and their legality under the KRG’s oil and gas law, as well as talks over the Iraqi Oil & Gas bill, which has been awaiting approval by the Iraqi parliament since 2007.
Abdul Hadi added that representatives of regional countries also would not be attending. “The Turkish ministers will not participate, but a number of diplomats are expected to attend,” he said.
One of the issues between Erbil and Baghdad has been over paying foreign energy companies working on projects in the Kurdistan Region. Baghdad refuses to pay the firms on grounds that the contracts are illegal.
There are more than 50 foreign oil companies operating in the Kurdistan Region’s oil and gas sector.
“These oil companies have spent more than $20 billion to improve the oil sector in the Kurdistan Region,” KRG energy minister Ashti Hawrami told an economic summit in Istanbul last week.
"Out of the proceeds of the payments from the (oil) sales, the contractors will get their share of compensation," he said.
Tony Hayward, CEO of Anglo-Turkish firm Genel Energy which is the largest oil producer in Kurdistan, said at the Istanbul conference that Erbil is on its way to becoming a major exporter of hydrocarbons.
