Iraqi Kurdistan agree to deliver oil to Iraqi Oil Ministry
The facilities of Kurdish oil company KAR, in Erbil, Iraq. Photo: Reuters
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – A source in the Iraqi government revealed on Thursday that Baghdad and Erbil agreed that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) will deliver its production of oil to the Iraqi Ministry of Oil as part of an agreement on committing to the general budget law, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.
Under the agreement, the KRG is responsible for delivering the region’s oil production to the Oil Ministry in Baghdad, the source told INA.
The Iraqi Ministry of Finance pays the KRG for the costs of production and transportation of the oil the Iraqi Oil Ministry has already received, according to the agreement.
The KRG will also deliver its entire non-oil revenues to the Iraqi Ministry of Finance to be deposited in an account at the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI).
The agreement includes the formation of a committee from both parties to follow up on non-oil revenues in the region, provided that it finishes its work within a month, as the budget law stipulates.
An international arbitration panel obliged Turkey to pay 1.5 billion USD to Iraq for oil exports from Iraqi Kurdistan through the port of Ceyhan between 2014 and 2018 without Baghdad’s approval.
Iraq won a lawsuit against Ankara in the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris.
The lawsuit was filed against Turkey for violating the provisions of the Iraqi-Turkish pipeline agreement signed in 1973.
Turkey stopped Iraq’s exports of 450,000 barrels per day through the oil pipeline that extends from the Kurdistan region of Iraq to the Turkish port of Ceyhan on March 25.
The 80-day halt of oil exports from the Kurdistan region of Iraq cost the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) more than $2 billion, according to Reuters.