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Iraq
From left: Iraqi parliament building, and an oilfield in Kurdistan Region. Photos: Iraqi parliament/AFP. Graphic: Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Iraqi parliament is set to discuss a bill submitted by the federal government to increase the rate for the production and transportation of a barrel of oil from the Kurdistan Region by nearly $10 on Tuesday amid efforts to resume the exportation of the Kurdish oil which has been halted for 19 months.
Earlier this month, the Iraqi government approved a proposal to amend articles from the federal budget to authorize compensation to companies operating in the Kurdistan Region for oil production and transportation costs, setting the rate at $16 per barrel.
According to the parliamentary agenda for Tuesday’s session, the lawmakers will conduct the first reading of the bill. Following the second reading, it will be put to a vote. If passed, the amendment will pave the way for the resumption of the Kurdistan Region’s oil exports to the international markets via the Ceyhan pipeline.
Iraq’s three-year federal budget bill, passed in June 2023, had set the rate for one barrel of oil at $6.90 and international oil companies (IOCs) have requested three times that amount.
Oil exports from the Kurdistan Region through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline have been suspended since March 2023 after a ruling by a Paris-based arbitration court ruled in favor of Baghdad over Ankara, saying the latter had breached a 1973 pipeline agreement by allowing Erbil to export oil independently since 2014.
Before the halt, Erbil exported around 400,000 barrels per day through the pipeline, in addition to some 75,000 barrels of Kirkuk’s oil.
Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said on Saturday that the halt has cost them $20 billion.
“It is hurting the rest of the country as well,” he told a panel at the Middle East Peace and Security (MEPS) Forum in Duhok city.
Myles Caggins, spokesperson for the Association of the Petroleum Industry of Kurdistan (APIKUR), told Rudaw last week that they see the amendment as a “good step” but “Before we begin exporting oil, we must have written agreements.”
“So right now, we are seeing the political law, the budget law, Article 12 of the budget law in Parliament. After that, we need to have written agreements, and each individual company must agree to these terms under the new contracts,” he said.
Fuad Hussein, Iraq's foreign minister, told Rudaw on November 14 that the exportation of the Kurdish oil could resume in weeks.
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