Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper stressed the growing need for the country to pass the long overdue hydrocarbons law, and noted that the budget bill will soon be debated in the parliament.

"We are about to present the budget bill, and have reached an agreement with the Kurdistan Region on managing the oil sector, and also on budget shares," Prime Minister Sudani noted.

We will work on passing a hydrocarbons law after the budget bill is passed into law. The passage of a hydrocarbons law will be the greatest achievement since the constitution was drafted in 2003. It's not only the Kurdistan Region waiting for the passage of a hydrocarbons law, rather, all oil-producing provinces are waiting for this law, because they all want to know their powers."

The absence of a hydrocarbons law in the country has often led to tensions between Erbil and Baghdad over control of oil sales.

Relations between the two have recently been improving, especially after Prime Minister Masrour Barzani's visit to Baghdad in January. The rapprochement was, however, upset afterwards by recent Iraqi Supreme Federal Court decision, which ruled Kurdistan Region's shares of the federal budget unconstitutional.