Research 5 ILIC 2018

Abstract: The subject of this research deals with the discretion granted by the Kurdistan Oil and Gas Law to the Minister of Natural Resources in two specific fields: the selection of the contractor and the definition of some of the terms of the oil contracts, as these fields have the greatest impact on the consequences of contracts concluded by government agencies with foreign companies. In order to address the issue of this research in a better way, we have chosen the oil and gas law of the Sultanate of Oman to be compared with the law of the Kurdistan Region, because it has recently been issued and from a state close to the Kurdistan Region in various aspects.

In this research we reached that the Kurdistan Region law gives wide discretionary powers to the Minister of Natural Resources in the field of choosing the contractor, while the Omani law entrusts this task to a special council that its terms of reference has been specified in detail in the articles and paragraphs of the law, without granting any discretionary power to the minister or anyone else. In addition, the law of the Kurdistan Region gave the minister broad discretion in determining some of the terms of the contract, while the Omani law defined the basic conditions that must be met in the oil contracts and other contracts to which the government agencies are parties, without giving any discretion to the minister or to any others in this aspect.

At the end of the research, we draw a set of conclusions and recommendations that we considered necessary to address the shortcomings and gaps in the provisions of the law that regulates the topic of this research, in order to take those shortcomings and gaps into account and to avoid them in the near future.