— The State Department on Thursday denied charges by a House committee that it inappropriately encouraged a Texas-based oil company to strike an exploration deal with the Kurdish government in Iraq. Hunt Oil Co.'s contract with the Kurds, reached last September, had angered Iraq's central government in Baghdad, which said any deals with foreign companies should not be signed until lawmakers agreed on how the nation's oil revenues would be divided. The issue remains unresolved and continues to be among the most contentious within the Iraqi Parliament. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters that the department had advised all U.S. oil companies, including Hunt Oil Co., against making any deals in Iraq before the hydrocarbons law passed because it would aggravate political tensions. If individuals had...
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