Risk Management Report - Iraqi Kurdistan

Politics: Disagreements between the autonomous Kurdish region and the federal Iraqi government in Baghdad have been a source of major tensions in recent years. The 2005 constitution stipulated that Iraqi Kurdistan had an identity distinct from Iraq, and was a federal entity recognised by Iraq and the United Nations; the 2010 Erbil agreement with Baghdad outlined how power would be shared. But the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has protested their lack of implementation, and relations with Baghdad have been acrimonious. Oil has been at the centre of the dispute, with Baghdad furious that Erbil signed production-sharing agreements with international oil companies (IOCs) without its say-so, and Kurdistan wanting to export oil independently rather than via the central state marketing organisation.