Kurdish Officials to Back Iraq Oil Law (Updated & Bumped)

This IS a big deal folks....

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq (AP) - Kurdish authorities have agreed to back a draft law to manage and share Iraq's vast oil wealth, removing the last major obstacle to approving the measure and meeting a key U.S. benchmark in Iraq, a top Kurdish official said Saturday.

Approval of a new oil law could help open the way for international oil companies to invest billions to upgrade Iraq's decrepit wells and pipelines and exploit the country's reserves, among the world's largest.

The bill also provides a formula for distributing revenues among all major ethnic and religious groups, easing Sunni fears of being cut out of a future bonanza because their central and western homelands lack extensive reserves.

Update: Iraqi Cabinet approves draft oil law

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Iraqi Cabinet approved a long-awaited draft oil law on Monday, sending it to parliament for consideration, the prime minister said, calling the agreement "another founding stone in state-building."

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government had promised a new oil law by the end of 2006 but missed the deadline due to objections from the Kurds, and it faced pressure from the Bush administration to come through. Many of
Iraq vast oil reserves can be found in the Kurdish north and the Shiite south, and the Kurds wanted a greater role in awarding contracts and administering the revenues