Fiscal Federalism and Petroleum Resources in Iraq

This paper seeks to inform the Iraqi governmental framework for managing petroleum resources and distributing revenues. The working paper first reviews the relevant features of Iraq’s federal structure and oil industry, with a special focus on geography. Then, the authors propose some principles to aid the design of policies for 1) the efficient assignment of ownership, management and revenue-raising around natural resources; (2) revenue-sharing and equalization programs; and (3) saving of oil revenues.