ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani denied that Kurdish oil exports were a prelude to seeking independence from Iraq, saying Erbil only wanted to ensure it receives the revenues promised to it under the constitution.
In a speech to the Kurdistan parliament on Wednesday, Barzani blamed Baghdad for a current row over independent oil exports by Erbil, saying that many problems could have been avoided if the central government had reached an agreement on sharing the revenues from oil sales.
“We don’t see this (oil exports) as a way for the independence of Kurdistan. Indeed it is not so!” declared Barzani, who is officially prime minister of a caretaker government until a new Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is announced.
“We want to implement our constitutional rights within Iraq,” he said, answering questions from MPs about Kurdistan’s oil policy.
The oil issue has been at the center of one of the worst rows between the KRG and the Shiite Arab-led government in Baghdad.
Erbil opened its new pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan in December, but after strong opposition from Baghdad Ankara said it would hold off on allowing the sales until consent from the central government.
However, after months of bickering and acrimony, including Baghdad freezing Erbil out of the national budget for months, no agreement was reached.
Then late last month, the KRG confirmed that a tanker loaded with the first sale of one million barrels of Kurdish oil had left Ceyhan for an unknown destination.
Earlier this week, KRG spokesman Safeen Dizayee told Rudaw that the tanker had “reached its destination.”
International news agencies, citing vessel tracking services, reported that the United Leadership tanker had seemingly originally set course for the United States Gulf Coast, but had then stopped and taken a U-turn in the Atlantic, sailing for the Moroccan coastal city of Mohammedia.
Since the oil was picked up and the tanker set sail from Ceyhan, the KRG never announced the identity of the buyer, or where the cargo was destined for.
However, reports about the tanker’s erratic trail suggest there could be complications in selling Kurdish oil, according to oil experts quoted by the Bloomberg news agency.
Baghdad has called the oil sales “illegal,” and the United States has consistently opposed independent Kurdish energy exports.
Barzani, meanwhile, reaffirmed the legality of KRG’s oil policy.
“We are absolutely confident about what we have done, which is in the interest of the people of Kurdistan and the framework of the Iraqi constitution,” he said.
Barzani also vowed to make transparency in the energy sector a top priority of his next cabinet.
“We want to deal with this in a transparent way. We want to turn this matter (oil) into a national one and end the saga of whether it’s transparent or not,” he said.
“The problem with the federal government regarding oil is that it wants to control of this dosser,” Barzani complained.
“If they (Baghdad) had reached an agreement with us on the distribution of oil revenues, which is the most important law for Iraq, many problems would have been resolved,” he said.
The bone of contention between Erbil and Baghdad is over who controls revenues. The Kurds rejected demands by Baghdad that the sales should be conducted by the State Oil Marketing Organization, inviting SOMO only as an observer.
Barzani reiterated a complaint that many Kurdish leaders have made, namely that Erbil is entitled to 17 percent of the national budget, but that Baghdad has failed to consistently deliver more than 10 percent.
“The government’s load is very heavy -- for your information 850 billion Iraqi dinars is spent only to pay for civil servants’ salaries only in a month,” Barzani disclosed.
“To reach an international standard we need $41 billion in investments for infrastructure, including roads, hospitals and schools.”
He also answered the long-pending question about the duration of the KRG’s energy deal with Turkey, saying the accord is valid for 50 years, with the possibility of extension.
“The protocol with Turkey is not to divide Iraq, but to get our own 17 percent of the budget,” Barzani stressed.
