DUBAI, May 20 (Reuters) - Two deals between U.S. energy firms and the Iraqi Kurdistan government announced on Tuesday are "null and void" as they lack federal approval, Baghdad's oil ministry said.

Iraqi Kurdistan's P.M. Masrour Barzani in a speech in Washington announced the signing of two deals worth $110 billion over their lifetimes with U.S. firms HKN Energy and WesternZagros.

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They had been flagged by an adviser in a social media post a day earlier.

The deals involve the development of the Miran and Topkhana-Kurdamir gas fields in Sulaymaniya.

"These contracts are null and void. Natural resources belong to all Iraqis, and any agreement to invest them must be made through the federal government, not in defiance of the law and the constitution," Iraq's oil ministry said.

In a ruling issued in 2022, Iraq's federal court deemed an oil and gas law regulating the oil industry in Iraqi Kurdistan unconstitutional and demanded that Kurdish authorities hand over their crude oil supplies.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-energy-firm-deals-with-iraqi-kurdistan-null-void-baghdad-says-2025-05-20/