Kurdistan oil exports to help reduce budget deficit- lawmakers

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Several Iraqi parliamentarians have expressed their backing for a deal between the Kurdistan Regional Government and Baghdad, under which the first will export 100,000 barrels of oil per day as of next month, saying it help cut the budget deficit. Abdulhadi al-Hassani, a member of the parliamentary hydrocarbon committee, told IraqiNews.com news agency that the northern region will export 100,000 barrels of oil per day from the Tawke and Taq Taq fields, noting that the revenues will help overcome the deficit in this year’s budget. According to Hassani, it will increase Iraq’s exports of crude oil to around 1.95 million barrels per day (bpd). On May 9, the Ministry of Natural Resources in the regional government announced the official start on June 1, 2009 of oil exports from the Tawke field at an average rate of 60,000 bpd. The ministry also said that 40,000 bpd of crude exports from Taq Taq field, which has estimated oil reserves of 1.2 billion barrels, would begin traveling by truck and through an Iraqi-Turkish export pipeline. It added that the exported crude from both fields will be marketed by Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO), noting that the revenue will be deposited to the federal government’s account. Sami al-Atroushi, a member of the financial committee in the Iraqi Parliament, described the current budget deficit as “large.” “The deficit will further increase by 10 percent if exports decline to less than 2 million bpd…We hope that oil prices increase by the launch of exports from the Kurdistan region,” Atroushi noted. The Iraqi Ministry of Oil has been exporting an average of 1.85 million bpd since the beginning of the current year. Iraq’s 2009 federal budget, totaling $62 billion U.S. dollars, is based on an oil price of $50 a barrel. Speaking to IraqiNews.com, Iraqi Minister of Finance Baqir Jabr al-Zubeidi said that current oil prices are ranging between $50 and $52. “The Ministry of Oil should raise exports to 2.2 million bpd… We are approaching mid-year and exports figures are still between 1.75 and 1.85 million bpd,” the minister added. SS (S) 1