ABSTRACT
In Section IV of the preceding chapter, a couple of hypothetical situations were discussed in which the principles distilled from the direct oil and gas provisions of the TAL (i.e., articles 25(E), 26(B), and 54(A) and (B)) were applied to hydrocarbon related activities of the KRG. One of those situations involved an oil and gas deposit split by the boundary between the undisputed province of Suleimaniya and disputed territories within the province of Salaheddin. The other situation involved a deposit located completely within Kurdish claimed areas of the disputed province of Kirkuk, right across the border from the undisputed province of Erbil. That same preceding chapter also had occasion to briefly reference both articles 53 and 58 of the TAL, as well as article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution. As will be recollected, the latter two TAL provisions in particular had earlier been described as having had the potential for an indirect impact on oil and gas matters during the period of Iraq’s transitional administration. 1 In the materials that follow, these two provisions of the TAL and their sister provision, article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution, will be scrutinized at length.
