Austrian FM to visit Iraq's Kurdish region

Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger will lead a business delegation to visit the northern Kurdish region in Iraq on Wednesday, local media reported on Tuesday. During the visit, Spindelegger will meet with Massoud Barzani, head of the regional administration in northern Iraq, which offers excellent opportunities for the production of oil and natural gas. The Austrian business delegation include representatives of the Austrian Airlines, Bank of Austria, Raiffeisen, VA integrating, VAMED and the state oil company OMV. Foreign companies are very active in this region, where 1,602 foreign companies have been registered until this July, according to the Austrian Chamber of Commerce. Austrian companies' engagement has been active since 2007. The oil company OMV has started exploration activities in five areas in the region and supervised the operation in three of them. OMV also holds a share of 10 percent in the Pearl Petroleum Company Limited, which has significant gas reserves in addition to condensate and liquid gas. In June this year, the company discovered oil in the region, however, the contractual conditions are not easy as agreement between foreign companies and the Kurdish regional government is often not recognized by the central government in Baghdad. The row between the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdish regional government in Erbil has long been focused on the right of exploiting oil fields in the semi-autonomous region as Baghdad stresses that oil deals with foreign oil firms must be struck by the central government.