Iraqi oil

Iraqi Oil Report has a few good posts on the evolving situation regarding Iraq's energy resources.
Oil has started flowing from the KRG region (Kurdistan Regional Government) but the oil law is still unclear: "without a compromise over the control of oil policy, the rights to sign deals, and the nature by which foreign oil companies can access Iraq’s nationalized oil sector, any deals remain controversial."
The gas deal with Shell in Basra is moving ahead. Earlier, an analysis of the document had found the Shell joint venture could create a monopoly on all of Iraq’s gas – not just in Basra, and not just flared gas found in the oil producing process – with the requirement to feed domestic gas needs first unclear. A story to be followed.
The Iraqi Oil Law is still stuck in Parliament. There are disputes between the central government and the KRG over the right to sign contracts with foreign oil and gas companies and how to share revenues. Currently oil policy is torn between the Saddam-era guidelines, which consolidate nearly all oil policies and decisions within the Oil Ministry, and the Kurdistan Regional Government’s take on the 2005 Constitution giving it the rights to sign oil deals.
Finalizing the Oil Law is important as it is difficult to sign solid contracts for energy resources exploitation without it. Iraq is due to approve such deals by the end of June, but the contracts that are being bid on won’t be signed until the oil law is passed. This is the first offering of oil and gas fields for international oil companies to develop. A second round is expected to be completed by the end of this year. The Ministry of Oil has signed a variety of field development and drilling service contracts, and is in negotiations over a handful of others.
The KRG, meanwhile, has signed two dozen oil and gas exploration and development deals. The earliest, initially inked in 2004, have begun commercially producing and after a prolonged political dispute – still not over – oil is now being exported via the northern Iraq pipeline to Turkey. The central Iraqi government says the deals violate the central government’s sole authority to carry out oil policy such as signing contracts. This is compounded by a running dispute over territories outside the official KRG territory, claimed by Kurds – displaced and harassed from the area by Saddam Hussein – as well as Arabs and minority groups such as the Turkomen. The Kirkuk field, one of Iraq’s biggest and oldest, runs through the territories.
Both the KRG and the central government blame the other for creating the roadblock to passing the Iraq Oil Law. In its stead, the central government is operating under remaining Saddam-era laws (which consolidate oil policy under the central government's authority), and the KRG under the region’s own oil law. Both interpret the 2005 Constitution, vaguely worded in the arena of oil and territories, to back their agenda.
Finally, a reminder that because oil constitutes 95% of the Iraqi state's income, oil issues will always remain politicized. Today there are three prominent oil-related problems: the failure of Parliament to pass a new oil law, lack of new contracts and declining output.