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| Iraq |
| South Korea to continue controversial oil project in Kurdistan |
| 2008-01-02 |
| State-run Korea National Oil Corp. stated that it would not abandon an exploration project in Iraqi Kurdistan despite threats by the central Iraqi government to cut off oil supplies to South Korea. "There is no change in our position to go ahead with the project," said Jang Soo-Bum, an official in charge of exploration projects. The corporation is part of a South Korean consortium that last month signed a deal with the Kurdistan government to explore the Bazian field, which is estimated to hold 500 million barrels of crude oil. Aasim Jihad, the official spokesman for the Iraqi oil ministry, threatened on December 26 to stop exporting Iraqi crude oil exports to South Korea if Seoul ratified an agreement concluded with the regional government of Iraq's Kurdistan. Local newspapers have said Britain's BP and an Austrian state energy developer received similar warnings over their deals with the semi-autonomous region. Meanwhile, Kurdistan Region criticized the Iraqi Oil Ministry's threats to stop oil exports to South Korea. "I believe these statements would complicate matters now that the negotiations between the central government and the Iraqi Kurdistan government are still going on," a prominent Kurdish lawmaker in Baghdad Parliament, Mahmoud Othman, said in a statement. Othman urged for recourse in Iraq's Supreme Court to settle the problem. "Even if we presumed that the Oil Ministry's procedures were constitutional, they should not be carried out in such a speed," he added. Regarding South Korean troops in Kurdistan Region, South Korean Parliament on December 28 voted to extend troop deployment in Kurdistan by one year. Seoul now has about 600 troops stationed in the Kurdish region for reconstruction projects. |
| Posted by:ryuge |