Iraq’s Constitution needs fixing before the oil law can be moved, top MP says…

Political disputes over Iraq's Constitution need to be resolved before progress on the oil law, said the deputy head of the Parliament's Energy Committee. "This will make the way to pass the law of oil and gas," Abdul-Hadi al-Hasani told United Press International’s Ben Lando in a phone interview from London. "It will be very easy to be passed because we won't have any disagreements. Roadblocks now are not technical, they are political."

Russia’s Finance Minister said Russian firms will get special advantage to invest $4 billion in Iraq following Moscow’s agreement last week to erase $12 billion in Saddam-era debt. Alexi Kudrin also said Russia would get "special attention to the previously signed deals," alluding to Russian firm Lukoil’s Saddam-era deal to develop the W. Qurna oil field, a massive field in Iraq’s south, Darya Korsunskaya reports for Reuters. Saddam cancelled the deal in 2002; he said Lukoil wasn’t doing the work while Lukoil said sanctions prevented it. Lukoil contends Saddam’s cancellation wasn’t legal under international law. Iraq’s government says otherwise and is currently in negotiations with Chevron for a technical service agreement for it. Lukoil’s vice president, however, says the firm will start work on W. Qurna in three to five years.