The semi-autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan may begin deliveries by early next year of around 250,000 barrels per day of crude oil to the federal government in Baghdad for exports, Iraqi Oil Minister Thamer Ghadhban said.
Under an agreement from two years ago, Kurdistan is obliged to send at least 250,000 bpd to Iraqi state oil marketing company SOMO to be exported via the pipeline to the Ceyhan port in Turkey, Reuters quoted Ghadhban as saying.
The proceeds from the exports of these volumes are set to go to Iraq’s federal budget, he noted, adding that in October, the Kurdistan region pumped 440,000 bpd of oil.
Iraq and Kurdistan have squabbled for years about the exports from the northern semi-autonomous region, with the Kurds exporting oil on their own since 2013.
Last November, Iraq resumed oil exports from the northern Kirkuk Province, a year after it had stopped oil flows from the area due to a dispute with the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
Around 300,000 bpd of crude oil previously pumped and exported in the Kirkuk Province to the Turkish port of Ceyhan were shut in when the Iraqi federal government moved in October 2017 to take control over the oil fields in Kirkuk from Kurdish forces after the semi-autonomous region held a referendum that Baghdad didn’t recognize.
However, the only export outlet of the Kirkuk oil is the oil pipeline of the Kurdistan Regional Government.
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