ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Kurdistan Regional Government spokesperson Safin Dizayee said Tuesday that Kurdistan region Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani is scheduled to visit Baghdad next week for talks on oil and budget shares in the 2016 Iraqi budget.
“Baghdad will not send the Kurdistan budget share unless the KRG hands over its oil to the Iraqi State Organization for Marketing Oil (SOMO),” Dizayee told Rudaw.
Erbil does not want to use all its trump cards with Baghdad, said Dizayee, who believes the previous Baghdad-Erbil agreements have become part of the past, and “this time both sides will focus on new agreements.”
According to the Erbil-Baghdad 2015 budget agreement, Baghdad must provide the KRG $10 billion, but only $2 billion dollars has been sent to Erbil so far this year, according to Dizayee.
The Kurdistan region sells on average 600,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd), according to Dizayee.
The Iraqi government held an extraordinary session on Sunday passing the Iraqi budget bill for 2016 with a budget of $91 billion and a deficit of almost $23 billion. In the bill, the Kurdistan region’s 17 percent budget share has been approved on condition the KRG should export 550,000 bpd though SOMO to the world market, according to a statement by the Iraqi government following the session.
The 2016 budget is based on the price of oil averaging just $45 per barrel. Oil funds up to 95 percent of the country’s budget, added the statement.
