Written question asked by Mike Hancock (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 31 March 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 2 April 2008. It was answered by Kim Howells (Labour) on Wednesday, 23 April 2008 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Iraq: Oil

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reports he has received on the probity of the procedures for the passage of the oil and gas law in Iraq.

Answer: The draft hydrocarbons law is under discussion by the Government of Iraq and the Iraqi Parliament, in accordance with Iraq's legislative processes. It is for the Iraqi Government and Parliament to decide how best to manage Iraq's oil and gas sectors.The draft hydrocarbons law is a result of negotiations between representatives of all of Iraq's main political parties. One of the drafting committee's members, Dr. Ashti Hawrami, Minister for Natural Resources in the Kurdistan Regional Government, was explicit on this point:"““no one has told us Iraqis what to put in the law. Iraqis alone have been deciding it. The only pressure put on us has been to move it forward and complete it””."The UK has an interest in promoting the effective management of this sector because of its importance to Iraq's reconciliation process and future prosperity, and has encouraged a balanced, technically unambiguous piece of legislation, acceptable to Iraq's main political parties.

Secondary information