BAGHDAD (AFP) – The Iraqi government announced Thursday an agreement to resume crude exports from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region after a more than two-year halt and amid drone attacks on oil fields.
Lucrative oil exports have been a major point of tension between Baghdad and Irbil, with a key pipeline through Turkey shut since 2023 over legal disputes and technical issues.
The Kurdistan regional government shall “immediately begin delivering all oil produced” in the region’s field to Baghdad’s State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) “for export,” the Iraqi government said in a statement.
The quantity should be no less than 230,000 barrels per day, and Baghdad will pay an advance of $16 a barrel.
The Kurdistan regional government said in a statement it “welcomes” the deal, and hoped all agreements would be respected.
Oil exports were previously independently sold by the Kurdistan region, without the approval or oversight of the central administration in Baghdad, through the port of Ceyhan in Turkey.
But the region’s official oil exports have been frozen since March 2023 when the arbitration tribunal of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris ruled oil exports by the regional government illegal and said that Baghdad had the exclusive right to market all Iraqi oil.
The decision halted the region’s independent exports by pipeline via Turkey.
Ever since, the federal and regional governments have been haggling over the production and transport costs payable to the region and its commercial partners among other financial issues.