Big Oil's Unwitting Bid for Kurdish Statehood

Now the KRG has had enough of asking, waiting, and hoping for Baghdad to change its mind. Instead, the Kurds are simply negotiating their own oil deals with foreign firms... and in a turn of events that few would have predicted even a year ago, big international oil companies are signing up.

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This balance between risk and reward is at the very heart of the oil industry. After calculating their potential losses in Iraq and their potential gains in Kurdistan, these three oil giants threw their hats on Kurdistan's table. In doing so, they are actively supporting Kurdistan's right, as a nation, to control its own resources. They are also staging a de facto rebellion against Iraq's stingy oil contracts, which direct the vast majority of revenues to the state while the operator receives only a small payment.