Baghdad threatens Kurdistan oil contractors with blacklist
Expansive policy targets both IOCs and sub-contractors, raising pressure on Kurdistan's oil sector amidst legal battles.
Karim Hattab, then the deputy oil minister for distribution and chair of the ministry's al-Hashid al-Shabi support committee, speaks at a June 19, 2019, event at the Oil Ministry commemorating the establishment of the Hashid. (Source: Oil Ministry media office)
BASRA - Iraq's Oil Ministry is reviving and expanding a policy of blacklisting companies that work in Kurdistan's oil sector — an escalation of the federal government's efforts to implement a landmark court ruling against the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
In a June 12 letter addressed to "all lead contractors and sub-contractors," which was seen by Iraq Oil Report, Hassan Muhammad Hassan, the director general of the state-run Basra Oil Company (BOC), lays out two stark demands: that companies should submit a "pledge" not to work in Kurdistan and that any current contracts should be terminated within three months.
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