Oil ministry signs deal to resume exporting from Kurdistan oil fields

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraq’s oil ministry signed a draft agreement to resume pumping crude oil from the Iraqi Kurdistan oil fields at a rate of 100,000 barrels per day, a ministry spokesman said. “Minister Abdulkareem al-Leiebi signed at the oil ministry headquarters in Baghdad with the Minister of Natural Resources in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region Ashti Hourami a draft agreement to resume pumping crude oil from the oil fields in the Region at a rate of 100,000 bpd,” Asim Jihad told IraqiNews.com news agency. “The pumped oil will be channeled to the ministry via national pipeline networks to be exported via the Turkish port of Ceyhan, to be added to the current export rates, while the proceeds from these sales will go to the state coffers,” he said. Jihad noted that an agreement was reached to activate a law on combating smuggling of oil derivatives in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region with the Region’s ministry of natural resources to be in charge of regulating this decision. AmR (TP) 514