ABU DHABI: Iraq’s Kurdish region will continue to export its own crude oil under an initial deal with Baghdad until a comprehensive deal is reached, with work on a final agreement expected to start within weeks, Iraqi oil minister Adel Abdel Mehdi said yesterday.
Early this month, the Iraqi central government reached a temporary agreement with Kurdish regional authorities ending a bitter dispute over oil exports by and budget payments to the semi-autonomous Kurdish region.
Under the deal, Kurdish fields would export 250,000 barrels per day through Iraq’s state oil marketing organisation (SOMO), while an additional 300,000 b/d from the Iraqi area of Kirkuk would be exported via a pipeline running through Kurdish territory.
Abdel Mehdi said the initial deal was put together mainly so Baghdad could form a budget for 2015, and that a final settlement “should be worked out in the coming weeks”.
In the meantime, the Kurdish region can continue exporting above the 250,000 b/d limit on its own, but legal action taken by Baghdad against Kurdish authorities in Arbil over oil exports will remain in place, he said.
“We agreed for the time being things would stay as they are. It means, they were producing, they were exporting and we are putting some claims on that. This is not legal, so things will continue as they are now.”
There is now “confidence and goodwill” between the two sides, Abdel Mehdi said. “We think we can sit together and settle all those pending issues like the payments and claims from either side.” The minister said Iraq now produced around 3.2m b/d in the south of the country and expected this to rise about 100,000 or 200,000 b/d next year. Reuters
