Under terms of a compensation system called the petrodollar, Kirkuk should receive two dollars for each exported barrel of oil, said Ali Salayi, head of the oil committee in Kirkuk province.
“But we have received nothing since June 2013,” Salayi said, adding thaat the delayed payments are now close to a billion dollars.
The oil committee leader told Rudaw that Iraq’s central government is obligated to pay most of the outstanding sum, but even the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) owns a portion of the debt, he said.
“Since late last year, the KRG has exported over 200,000 barrels of oil per day from oil fields in Kirkuk, which means that parts of the petrodollar compensation should be made by Erbil,” Salayi told Rudaw.
A tentative agreement between Baghdad and the KRG last December led to the formation of Iraq’s new cabinet and gave KRG rights to partly export oil from Kirkuk province, which is currently under Peshmerga control. Also Iraq’s Northern Oil Company exports oil from the province using a KRG-owned pipeline to Turkey. Iraq’s own northern pipeline was seized and damaged during an Islamic State (ISIS) offensive.
Salayi said oil production in Kirkuk has grown to an estimated 450,000 barrels per day with 360,000 exported by Erbil and Baghdad to the Turkish Ceyhan port.
Kirkuk has about 10 percent of Iraq’s total oil reserves estimated at 140 billion barrels.
Iraq’s army abandoned the city in June 2014 in the aftermath of ISIS offensives across northern parts of the country. Peshmerga forces entered Kirkuk province later the same month and have remained there since.
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