Schlumberger, Baker Hughes and Halliburton are in the process of liquidating and exiting existing tenders and contracts in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region to be in compliance with a Federal Supreme Court ruling, the oil ministry said July 4. The three oil service companies told the federal oil ministry they would not apply for new energy projects in Kurdistan, the ministry said in a statement. Halliburton, Schlumberger and Baker Hughes were not immediately available for comment. The Federal Supreme Court ruled on Feb. 15 that Kurdistan’s independent oil and gas industry is unconstitutional and ordered the Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG, to hand over the energy assets to the federal government in Baghdad. KRG oil is currently produced through several agreements with private companies and is marketed by the regional government’s Ministry of Natural Resources, independently of Iraq’s federal oil sales, which are controlled by state-owned marketer SOMO. The Kurdish […]