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Iraq to punish firms which signed oil deals with Kurds

RIYADH, Nov 15, 2007 (AFP) - Iraq said on Thursday that foreign oil companies which signed deals with the autonomous Kurdish regional government will be barred from doing business in the country and from exporting oil.

"Any company that has signed contracts without the approval of the federal authority of Iraq will not have any chance of working with the government of Iraq," Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani said.

"We warned the companies that there will be consequences... that Iraq will not allow its oil to be exported," Shahristani told reporters on the sidelines of OPEC meetings in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

Last week, the Kurdish authorities signed seven production-sharing contracts with a number of foreign oil companies in defiance of the Iraqi central government and before approving a controversial federal oil law.

The latest contracts bring to 15 the number of deals finalised by the Kurdish regional government since it passed its own oil law in August.