LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF LOCAL CONTENT REQUIREMENTS IN THE IRAQI KURDISTAN REGION OIL AND GAS SECTOR

Abstract

Extractive industry legal frameworks often contain provisions for regulating and managing local content requirements. The local content framework in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq is also anchored in a legal and regulatory framework that mostly derives from the Kurdistan Region Oil and Gas Law No. (22) of 2007 and terms set in Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs). The law and PSCs simply give preference to the acquisition of local goods, services and to the Kurdistan Region and other Iraq citizens in employment, training, skill development, and technology transfer with a view to promote local content. This study aims to critically analyse the legal framework of the Kurdistan Region local content requirements, to examine its main characteristics, to survey outcomes of its implication, and also to ascertain its legal complications. This study has clarified that provisions of the Oil and Gas Law 2007 and the Kurdistan Region’s PSCs regarding local content requirements are not well organized and there is the absence of a specific local content law or regulations. Therefore, local content requirements in the Kurdistan Region have not been able to engage the local staff in senior levels and the Kurdistan Region still suffers from poor quality of the training system. Finally, the study propounds numerous recommendations for the Kurdistan Region to minimise legal contentions and risks relating to local content requirements of the Kurdistan Region.