Schlumberger Will Not Apply for Iraqi Kurdistan Oil Tenders

U.S. energy company Schlumberger Ltd. has said it will not apply without Baghdad’s consent for any tenders in the oil and gas sector of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, according to a letter sent to the Iraqi oil minister and seen by Reuters.

Schlumberger said it would comply with a February ruling by Iraq’s federal supreme court, which deemed an oil and gas law regulating the industry in Kurdistan unconstitutional and demanded that Kurdish authorities hand over crude supplies.

The ruling of the Baghdad-based court has strained tensions between the Iraqi government and the country’s semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), based in the northern city of Erbil.