ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Baghdad and Erbil are still discussing a dispute over the mechanism of Kurdish oil exports to Turkey and there has been no agreement over the central government managing the oil sales, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) spokesman Safeen Dizayee said.
“There is no agreement between the Kurdistan Region and the federal government about exporting Kurdish oil to the world market through State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO),” Dizyaee told Rudaw.
His comments were in response to a statement by Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs Hussein Shahristani, who said on Saturday that Erbil and Baghdad had reached an agreement “on the mechanism of exporting oil through SOMO.”
Meanwhile Muayad Tayib, spokesperson for the Kurdistani Alliance in the Iraqi parliament, also dismissed Shahristani’s comments as “baseless.”
Tayib said that Erbil and Baghdad are still pursuing talks to resolve their differences, but that “there is no truth” to what is said about an agreement having been reached.
Iraq’s Shiite-led government is locked in a serious quarrel with the Kurdistan Region, which backs its intention to begin large exports to Turkey by citing the constitution. Baghdad insists that oil revenues from exports should be handled by SOMO, while the Kurds want to handle both exports and revenues, with SOMO as an observer.
In order to put pressure on the Kurds, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has cut the enclave from the national budget. Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani has called that tantamount to “a declaration of war.”
On Thursday, Barzani said the Kurds “cannot compromise” on their constitutional rights.
Dizayee said that Erbil is still awaiting a final response from the federal government to a set of recommendations made by the Kurdish delegation in Baghdad several weeks ago.
“We still waiting for Baghdad to give their answer in writing to our suggestions,” said Dizayee. “But Baghdad hasn’t responded yet.”
Meanwhile, he maintained that there haven’t been any recent meetings between the Kurdish ministry of finance and its Iraqi counterpart.
“The only thing is that Baghdad had requested some information about budget shortcomings and we provided that information through our coordinators in Baghdad,” he said.
Earlier in the week, Iraq’s acting finance minister Safaadin Safi had told Rudaw that Iraqi and Kurdish officials were scheduled to meet to discuss Kurdistan’s monthly budget.
Iraqi and Kurdish officials met face-to-face in December and earlier this year to reach a lasting agreement on oil exports and the autonomous region’s annual share of the budget. However, they still seem farther than ever from solving their disputes.
Iraq has now agreed to expedite the money that Erbil needs to pay government employees, but bitter feelings on both sides persist.
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