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Hunt Oil Signs Kurdish Deal, Slights Baghdad

Company will explore in northern Iraq without central approval

By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff

Posted Sep 10, 2007 2:20 PM CDT

(Newser) – Dallas-based Hunt Oil  has signed a deal to prospect for oil in in the northern Iraqi region of Kurdistan. Hunt is the latest of several small oil companies bypassing Baghdad to deal directly with regional authorities, underscoring Kurdistan's increasing independence from the Iraqi central government, which has been unable to pass a petroleum law drafted early last summer.

Kurdistan's petroleum make up only a tiny fraction of the country's oil reserves, estimated to be the third-largest in the world. But the area is Iraq's least violent, and the war, along with the lack of legal framework, makes most exploration impossible.

Oil tankers are filled in al-Bakir Harbor in Basra, Iraq, 550 kilometers (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq Sunday, July 15, 2007. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)
Oil tankers are filled in al-Bakir Harbor in Basra, Iraq, 550 kilometers (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq Sunday, July 15, 2007. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)   (Associated Press)
An oil worker tightens oil pipes in al-Bakir Harbor in Basra, Iraq, 550 kilometers (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq Sunday, July 15, 2007. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)
An oil worker tightens oil pipes in al-Bakir Harbor in Basra, Iraq, 550 kilometers (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq Sunday, July 15, 2007. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)   (Associated Press)
A man drives away after fueling up at a gas station, Monday, July, 2, 2007, in Seattle. Oil prices rebounded Monday from early declines to settle above $71 for the first time in 10 months as traders focused on a refinery outage in Kansas and new accusations about Iran's role...
A man drives away after fueling up at a gas station, Monday, July, 2, 2007, in Seattle. Oil prices rebounded Monday from early declines to settle above $71 for the first time in 10 months as traders focused...   (Associated Press)
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