ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Kurdistan Region is expected to finalize a deal this week to export oil and gas to Turkey as Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani arrives in Ankara.
A well-placed source told Rudaw that Barzani and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan will seal the final deal allowing exports of Kurdistan’s oil through a recently completed pipeline to Turkey and from there to the world market.
Upon his return from Ankara, Barzani is expected to visit Baghdad and discuss the details of the agreement with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Industry reports say that the pipeline, taking Kurdish oil to the Turkish point of Ceyhan, will initially carry 150,000 barrels a day, starting next month.
Baghdad opposes any direct oil deals by the autonomous Kurdistan Region, but Barzani has reassured that the agreement between Erbil and Ankara is beneficial to all Iraqi people.
Last week, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said that the Iraqi people will benefit from the oil deals that are signed with the Kurdistan Region.
“The Iraqi government will also get a copy of all receipts of all money kept in Turkish banks,” he said.
At a press conference last week, Barzani said that Iraq must pass the oil and gas law that has been sitting in parliament for years.
International observers believe that the export of oil and gas will give the Kurdistan Region greater political and economic autonomy. The region is currently dependent on 17 percent of Iraq’s federal budget to run the local government.
Since 2007, Erbil and the central government have been at loggerheads over the autonomous region’s natural resources.
Iraqi leaders say that Baghdad has the sole authority over the country’s oil and gas, while the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) argues that the constitution grants it the right to extract and export Kurdistan’s own oil.
Kurdistan’s Minister of Natural Resources Ashti Hawrami has stressed in the past that Kurdish oil exports should not worry Baghdad because the revenues are shared with the central government.
Rudaw has learned that Hawrami was in Ankara last week to arrange the final details for this week’s agreement between Barzani and Erdogan.
Yildiz also said earlier this month that his government was planning to mediate between Erbil and Baghdad over outstanding energy issues.
"We are trying to establish a method which we believe will counter the concerns of the central Iraqi government,” he said. “So far, the Kurdistan Regional Government and central government have not been able to establish the system they wished," Reuters quoted Yildiz as saying.
“The distribution of the revenues would be carried out by Iraq; we would only hold these deposits at a Turkish state bank," the Turkish energy minister added.
Kurdish leaders have complained that the central government has failed to pay the fees of foreign oil companies operating in the Kurdistan Region, estimated at $5 billion.
Earlier this month, Erbil and Ankara finalized a comprehensive energy package that includes the building of a second pipeline connecting the Kurdistan Region’s oil and gas to the world market via Turkey.
