Hunt Oil Deal at Odds with Baghdad

[dcpony]

I'm surprised the Bush administration didn't gurantee the deal. According to the article, a senior official with the State Department advised Hunt Oil, before signing the deal with the Kurds, that contracts with the Kurdistan Regional Government might contravene Iraqi law once national oil legislation was passed by the Iraqi Parliament.

If Hunt Oil's move to sign a deal with the Kurds isn't a bet against Iraq being partioned than I don't know what is.



NY Times
September 28, 2007
Official Calls Kurd Oil Deal at Odds With Baghdad
By ALISSA J. RUBIN and ANDREW E. KRAMER


BAGHDAD, Sept. 27 — A senior State Department official in Baghdad acknowledged Thursday that the first American oil contract in Iraq, that of the Hunt Oil Company of Dallas with the Kurdistan Regional Government, was at cross purposes with the stated United States foreign policy of strengthening the country’s central government.

“We believe these contracts have needlessly elevated tensions between the K.R.G. and the national government of Iraq,â€

[EastStang]

Hey no one knows who's running the show over there. Might as well make a deal with someone and find out later whether they had authority or not.