Kurdish party visits Baghdad after losing oil export dispute
▶ Regional government seeks agreement after ruling that it can no longer make unilateral sales through Turkey
Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region yesterday sent a senior delegation to Baghdad for talks over the long-standing issue of developing and exporting oil and gas resources, an Oil Ministry official has said.
A day earlier, the government in Baghdad announced it had won an arbitration case at the International Chamber of Commerce and halted Kurdistan’s unilateral oil exports through Turkey.
Baghdad and the authorities in Kurdistan have disagreed over the right to develop and export natural resources from the region since the 2003 USled invasion.
Kurdistan says the country’s 2005 constitution gives it the right to sign agreements with oil companies and states without consulting Baghdad.
The Iraqi government says the region has no right to sign deals unilaterally and that exports must go through staterun pipelines.
The Kurdistan Regional Government and Iraqi government have held talks to find a solution to the dispute.
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani met Kurdish leaders, including Masoud Barzani, the head of Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of two parties that share power in the region.
Shortly after Saturday’s announcement, Mr Barzani said the discussions with Baghdad “laid the groundwork for us to overcome the arbitration ruling today”.
He said the team sent by Erbil
to Baghdad yesterday would build on “goodwill” in talks with the central government.
The Kurdistan delegation held technical discussions at the Oil Ministry yesterday, an official told The National.
Mr Al Sudani said this month that the federal and Kurdistan governments reached a deal to deposit the region’s oil revenue in a bank account under Baghdad’s supervision.
In 2014, Baghdad filed a suit at the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, accusing Turkey of breaching a 1973 agreement by allowing the KRG to export oil through a pipeline to the port of Ceyhan.
Erbil and Ankara continued to co-operate to send about 450,000 barrels a day to the international market.
Iraq is Opec’s second largest producer and exports an average of 3.3 million barrels a day not including the output from Kurdistan.
On Saturday, Iraq prevented the export of 370,000 barrels from Kurdistan and 75,000 barrels from northern Kirkuk, Reuters reported.
Several issues between Baghdad and Erbil surfaced after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, including natural resources and control over territory claimed by both sides.
Last night, Rebaz Hamlan, an adviser to Iraqi Kurdistan Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, said oil exports from the region would only be halted until an agreement was reached.
“It is true that oil exports have been halted, but this is a temporary situation because we have good relations with the Iraqi government and the government of Mohammed Shia Al Sudani,” Mr Hamlan told Kurdish outlet Rudaw.
He said the halt of exports would cause a financial crunch during which the regional government would prioritise paying public sector workers. Such payments comprise most of the Kurdistan region’s budget.