Shafaq News..North Gas responds to concerns over Iraq oil reforms

Shafaq News- Kirkuk

Measures affecting
Iraq’s oil sector should take into account operational requirements and their
impact on production, and they are part of a time-limited trial that will be
evaluated once it ends, North Gas Company said on Monday.

The company said the
Oil Ministry had assured that workers’ rights and entitlements, as well as
funding for maintenance and production, would not be affected. “The ministry
considers these needs a priority for maintaining the efficiency of facilities
and keeping production running.”

The statement followed
reports of government plans to introduce reforms in the oil sector, including
changes to some administrative and financial arrangements.

Earlier today, Iraqi oil workers
protested in Baghdad and several provinces against new crude pricing
rules requiring refineries to buy oil at the lower of the SOMO price or the
state budget price, after a 30% annual deduction. Protest representative Imad
al-Qatrani told Shafaq News that the mechanism could undermine refinery
companies, domestic refining capacity and workers’ rights by reducing revenues
used to fund operations, facility development and employee payments.

Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi said at the
eighth Baghdad Dialogue conference on August 21 that the Oil Ministry had been
buying one million barrels of oil per day from the Finance Ministry for 5,000
dinars per barrel, with proceeds used for maintenance and employee incentives,
a practice he described as waste and corruption.

Al-Zaidi
said the government and the ministry later agreed to supply oil at a 30%
discount while maintaining subsidized prices for oil, gas oil and gasoline for
consumers, a measure expected to generate an additional 17.8 trillion dinars in
annual government revenue.

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