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BAGHDAD—Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Friday that Baghdad wouldn't terminate ExxonMobil Corp.'s contract to develop the West Qurna-1 oil field in southern Iraq as punishment for signing a deal with the country's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, with whom Baghdad has a long-running dispute over land and the sharing of oil resources.
"We have not cancelled its contract in the south," said Mr. Maliki in an interview with The Wall Street Journal ahead of a scheduled state visit to Washington next week.
"We are looking for a way for [Exxon Mobil's] other contracts in any area to be within the legal contexts, but as for cancelling its contract in the south, no."
Mr. Maliki also said that Exxon has "frozen" its controversial contract with the KRG, which was unveiled in the first half of November, and suggested that his government was willing to find a way to ultimately make the deal work if negotiations were restarted with the involvement of the Ministry of Oil.
"It [the contract] has a legal violation, it does not work unless Exxon comes back and negotiates with the Ministry of Oil in the presence of a representative of the Kurdistan region, then possible," Mr. Maliki said.
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"We have not cancelled its contract in the south," said Mr. Maliki in an interview with The Wall Street Journal ahead of a scheduled state visit to Washington next week.
"We are looking for a way for [Exxon Mobil's] other contracts in any area to be within the legal contexts, but as for cancelling its contract in the south, no."
Mr. Maliki also said that Exxon has "frozen" its controversial contract with the KRG, which was unveiled in the first half of November, and suggested that his government was willing to find a way to ultimately make the deal work if negotiations were restarted with the involvement of the Ministry of Oil.
"It [the contract] has a legal violation, it does not work unless Exxon comes back and negotiates with the Ministry of Oil in the presence of a representative of the Kurdistan region, then possible," Mr. Maliki said.
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