ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s oil ministry, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), and international oil companies (IOCs) will meet this week with the goal of finally resolving all obstacles preventing the resumption of Kurdish oil exports, a member of parliament said on Saturday.
“The meeting is to get the process right. The negotiations are in this direction and it is expected to resolve this matter. The oil contracts will be reviewed and an agreement will be reached regarding the entitlements of the IOCs,” Yahya al-Issawi, a member of the Iraqi parliament’s oil and gas committee, told Rudaw.
On Tuesday, the federal oil ministry invited the KRG’s natural resources ministry and the IOCs for an urgent meeting to reach an agreement on the resumption of exports. A day later, the natural resources ministry stated that it was ready for the meeting. The Association of the Petroleum Industry of Kurdistan (APIKUR), an association of oil companies working in the Kurdistan Region, also welcomed the invitation.
Oil exports from the Kurdistan Region through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline have been halted since March 2023 after a Paris-based arbitration court ruled in favor of Baghdad that Ankara had breached a 1973 pipeline agreement by allowing Erbil to begin independent oil exports in 2014.
Despite multiple talks between Kurdish, Iraqi, and Turkish officials, the exports have yet to resume and many international oil companies have suspended production. Billions of dollars in revenue have been lost.
Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani in November said the problem is technical rather than political. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani told Bloomberg in January that the main obstacle is that the IOCs “have an issue with the cost of producing barrels.”
Before the halt, around 400,000 barrels a day were being exported by Erbil through the pipeline, in addition to some 75,000 barrels of Kirkuk’s oil.
“The meeting is to get the process right. The negotiations are in this direction and it is expected to resolve this matter. The oil contracts will be reviewed and an agreement will be reached regarding the entitlements of the IOCs,” Yahya al-Issawi, a member of the Iraqi parliament’s oil and gas committee, told Rudaw.
On Tuesday, the federal oil ministry invited the KRG’s natural resources ministry and the IOCs for an urgent meeting to reach an agreement on the resumption of exports. A day later, the natural resources ministry stated that it was ready for the meeting. The Association of the Petroleum Industry of Kurdistan (APIKUR), an association of oil companies working in the Kurdistan Region, also welcomed the invitation.
Oil exports from the Kurdistan Region through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline have been halted since March 2023 after a Paris-based arbitration court ruled in favor of Baghdad that Ankara had breached a 1973 pipeline agreement by allowing Erbil to begin independent oil exports in 2014.
Despite multiple talks between Kurdish, Iraqi, and Turkish officials, the exports have yet to resume and many international oil companies have suspended production. Billions of dollars in revenue have been lost.
Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani in November said the problem is technical rather than political. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani told Bloomberg in January that the main obstacle is that the IOCs “have an issue with the cost of producing barrels.”
Before the halt, around 400,000 barrels a day were being exported by Erbil through the pipeline, in addition to some 75,000 barrels of Kirkuk’s oil.
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