Nouri al-Maliki... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party. Maliki imposed order on Basra wen the Shiites were going nuts, but has proven incapable of dealing with al-Qaeda's Sunni insurgency. Reelected to his third term in 2014...
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"For 2015, the Iraqi government must pay the oil companies some $20 billion and Baghdad should be committed the deals it makes," Janabi told the Al-Mada newspaper on Friday.
Janabi said the delayed formation of a federal council for the oil and gas is the leading factor in the corruption and decline of Iraq's oil sector.
Janabi, a member of interim prime minister's Ayad Allawi's cabinet in 2005, said at the time of the Allawi's government there was a plan to increase production and oil exports to six million barrels per day at a time when the price was $100 for per barrel of crude.
"Due to bad administration in terms of the oil sector during Maliki's time in office, the country lost $500 billion," said Janabi, referring to Mailiki tenure from 2006-2014.
In early march, a Kurdish MP in Iraqi parliament said Baghdad was considering a change in its oil agreements with foreign firms to claw its way out of a deep economic crisis.
Iraqi Kurdish MP Arez Abdullah said the parliamentary oil committee had met with the country's oil ministry to work out a solution.
"According to our information, Iraq owes oil companies $21 billion. We expect the amount to increase, as Iraq does not have enough money to pay them back on time," Adullah told Rudaw.