ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is expected to reach financial self-sufficiency from Baghdad in the coming months, Ashti Hawrami, KRG energy minister, has told Rudaw. On the sidelines of the Third Annual Forum of the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani, Hawrami outlined plans to increase their oil production to 750,000 barrels per day by the end of 2015. He said economic independence could be achieved despite Baghdad withholding the region’s 17 percent share of budget due to the drop in oil prices and skyrocketing security costs. Hawrami, minister of oil and natural resources since 2006, said Baghdad cut off the KRG from its share of the budget in 2014, a move he claimed was punishment for the KRG’s independent oil exports. Still, he said the economic plan would fill the gap. Hawrami had previously claimed KRG will produce one million barrels of oil per day by the end of 2015. He qualified that number in the interview, explaining the ongoing war with ISIS has delayed the export volume for at least five or six months. Erbil and Baghdad finalized an agreement in December that said the KRG would contribute 550,000 barrels of oil per day to the federal budget. In a separate statement this week, the KRG said it has honored 97 percent of its commitments under the oil agreement with Baghdad, but said the central government has lived up to only 20 percent of its financial obligations.
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