BAGHDAD, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi Federal Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that an oil and gas law in the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan is unconstitutional.
The court decided to oblige the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to hand over all the extracted oil production to the Federal Ministry of Oil, the court said in a statement.
Moreover, it allows the ministry to seek to invalidate oil contracts between the regional government and other countries or companies for oil exploration, extraction, export and sale, according to the statement.
The court decision also obligated the regional government to enable the federal review of its export and sale contracts for oil and gas to determine the region's financial jurisdiction, it added.
The regional Ministry of Natural Resources has been developing oil and gas resources independently of the federal government. The KRG passed its own oil and gas law in 2007 to enable direct contracts with foreign energy companies without federal authorization. ■
