Baghdad, October 05: A senior Iraqi lawmaker says the country will delay the discussion of a stalled hydrocarbons law until after the parliamentary elections in January.
The law has been held up for three years due to disagreements between MPs from the country’s majority Shia and minority Sunni, Kurd and other communities.
It would regulate the oil sector and divide responsibility between the central government in Baghdad and Iraq’s provinces.
“There is no agreement on the contents of the oil law … because this government wants the management of the oil sector to be centralized,” said Ali Hussein Balo, the chairman of the parliamentary oil and gas committee.
“Due to these conflicts, we have decided to delay the oil law enactment until after the election,” he told AFP.
Iraq’s Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani has announced that the country plans to pump six million barrels of oil per day, up from current output of around 2.5 million.
—-Agencies