Kurdistan appeals Baghdad ruling against IOCs

Tanker trucks load crude at the Shaikan oil field, operated by Gulf Keystone, in July 2012. (SEBASTIAN MEYER/Metrography/Iraq Oil Report)

BAGHDAD - The Kurdistan region's Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) has initiated an appeal of a Baghdad court's July decision to invalidate four contracts with international oil companies — a move that could delay any attempted enforcement action by the Oil Ministry.

In a hearing on Sunday, Judge Mohammed Ali Mahmoud Nadeem of the Karkh Commercial Court in Baghdad confirmed that the four defendants — Norway's DNO, UK-listed Genel Energy, Canada's Western Zagros, and U.S. firm HKN — had been sent summonses to appear at an appellate hearing.