ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) earned a net income of $416.5 million from oil sales in October, the region’s Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) announced in its monthly report released on Thursday.
The gross value for oil sales in October was $636.36 million, of which $74.56 million was allocated to the producing oil companies, $153.8 million went towards past payments to buyers, and $44.87 million went to Kirkuk, electricity costs and “other payments.”
Kirkuk province receives a share of the oil sales from the oil produced in its fields.
Contributing to the October revenues is a total of $53.39 million in prepayments against future exploitation of crude oil.
The Ministry exported a daily average of 540,857 barrels (bbls), for a monthly total of 16,766,563 bbls to Turkey’s Ceyhan port.
It also exported a total of 1.5 million bbls from the Iraqi North Oil Company’s Kirkuk oil fields.
Baghdad and Erbil agreed to work jointly to export and sell oil produced in Kirkuk and share the revenues following a visit headed by Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani to Baghdad to meet with his counterpart Haider al-Abadi in August.
Some of the oil produced, 1.67 million bbls, was refined locally at the Kalak and Bazian refineries for local consumption, the MNR reported.
Oil revenue “plus other income generated locally” by the ministry was received by the KRG to pay the monthly salaries of its employees, the MNR reported.
The KRG has said the ongoing war with ISIS, the influx of nearly 2 million refugees and internally displaced Iraqis, and Baghdad’s freezing of the Erbil’s budget since February 2014, combined with low oil prices has made it difficult to pay the salaries of public servants. Public salaries are often delayed and not paid in full.
Oil is the only major source of revenue for the Kurdistan Region. The MNR said it sold a barrel of oil for an average of $39.32 in October.
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