Kurdistan capable of exporting 100,000 bpd- PM

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government Kurdistan RegionG) Nejervan al-Barazani said that his region is currently able to export 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil. The remarks were made during Barazani’s reception of a German businessmen delegation on Sunday evening at the luxurious Khanzad Hotel (25 km east of Arbil city) and in the presence of the German ambassador in Baghdad, Christopher Weil. A high-ranking delegation headed by the president of Iraq’s Kurdistan is currently negotiating controversial issues with the central government in the capital Baghdad. The German delegation comprised representatives of 40 companies, businessmen and traders. Arbil, also written Erbil or Irbil, is believed to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited in the world and is one of the largest cities in Iraq. The city lies eighty kilometers (fifty miles) east of Mosul. In 2005, its estimated population was 990,000 inhabitants. The city is the capital of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region and the Kurdistan Regional Government Kurdistan RegionG). It hosts the headquarters of the Kurdistan region ministers and parliament. Since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, only isolated, sporadic violence has hit Arbil, unlike many other areas of Iraq. Parallel bomb attacks against the Eid celebrations arranged by the Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Kurdistan RegionG President Massoud Barazani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) killed 109 people on February 1, 2004. Responsibility was claimed by the Islamist group Ansar al-Sunnah, and stated to be in solidarity with the Kurdish Islamist faction Ansar al-Islam. Another bombing on May 4, 2005 killed 60 civilians. Despite these bombings the population generally feels safe. SS (S) 1