Iraq’s national oil companies are audited by the Iraqi Board of Supreme Audit (BSA) based on local Iraqi accounting standards. When originally developed in the 1980s, these standards were based on International Accounting Standards (IAS). Since then the BSA’s standards have been updated, but not in accordance with the IAS. During the course of reconciling differences for the first IEITI Report, the Independent Administrator found that differences in the accounting standards created an “understanding gap between national oil companies as compared with the industry practice”.

All of Iraq EITI’s reports recommend that “National Oil Companies should be audited in accordance with International Accounting Standards and International Financial Reporting Standards”.

The EITI reports also recommend that buyers provide their audited financial statements yearly to the state’s oil marketing company, SOMO, to ensure that these are in fact available upon request. The Government of Iraq has not yet implemented these recommendations.

The EITI encourages multi-stakeholder groups to explore innovative approaches to make the EITI more relevant and useful.

• EITI Report covers export sales of oil, disaggregated by buying company.
• EITI Report includes detailed production figures and a chapter on mining in Iraq.
• EITI Report covers government payments to companies for remuneration fees, cost recovery and internal service payments (to national oil companies). 
• Iraq's national oil companies have published their financial statements for 2016-2017 on their respective websites for the first time.  

In an unprecedented gathering of civil society representatives from all over the country, Iraq EITI refreshed part of its multi-stakeholder group in December 2014.

In February 2014, Iraq EITI submitted a request for adapted implementation, being unable to guarantee the comprehensive disclosure of material payments collected by the KRG. The Board approved the request for the 2012 and 2013 EITI Reports. 

Following protracted negotiations between the IEITI and the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), the Iraq EITI produced an update of its 2010 report in May 2013, including a chapter on Kurdistan’s oil and gas production and revenues from exports, assessed by the Supreme Audit Board.

On 9 August 2012 the Iraq EITI Council agreed a final Validation report. The EITI Board declared Iraq compliant on 12 December 2012.

The first EITI Report covering 2009 was published in December 2011. The 2009 EITI Report covered export sales of all officially exported oil from Iraq, including from Kurdistan, which go through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline with ports at Basra and Ceyhan (in Turkey). Any oil in that pipeline is the property of SOMO, the Iraqi state-owned oil company. 

Iraq was accepted as an EITI Candidate country by the Board on 10 February 2010.

In December 2018, Iraq EITI submitted a new request for adapted implementation, being unable to guarantee the comprehensive disclosure of material payments collected by the KRG. The Board approved the request in April 2019 for the 2016-2018 EITI Reports. 

Timeline