Kurdistan government holds talks over Norwegian share sale dispute

29 September 2009

Oslo bourse says Iraqi authorities are not under investigation

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) met with the Oslo stock exchange on 28 September to discuss a share dispute involving Norway’s DNO International, which has crippled the company’s Kurdistan operations.

Khaled Salih, senior adviser to the natural resources minister at the KRG, met with the exchange to explain the “unfortunate consequences” which the DNO case has now created for the Kurdish government.

“Oslo Bors stressed during the meeting that the exchange does not have any issues with KRG, and that KRG has not at any time been the subject of investigations by the exchange,” according to a statement released by the bourse on 28 September.

It follows the exchange’s announcement on 22 September that a probe into the sale of shares from DNO to Turkey’s Genel Enerji showed that the KRG’s Natural Resources Minister Ashti Hawrami acted as a middle man for the deal.

On 23 September, the KRG froze DNO’s operations in Iraq for six weeks after claiming that “misleading and incomplete publications” produced by the Oslo stock exchange had caused serious harm to its reputation (MEED 23:9:09).

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