ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The meeting in Baghdad between Iraqi and Kurdish officials as well as international oil companies has concluded without reaching any deals despite US pressure, a meeting participant told Rudaw English.
“Nothing [was] achieved and there was no breakthrough,” the source told Rudaw English on the condition of anonymity, adding that, however, they agreed to form two committees between Erbil and Baghdad to address pressing issues, including debts, assurances of payment, and how the scope of the third party consultant.
A top American diplomat also attended the meeting as Washington is increasingly pressuring Baghdad to resume Kurdish oil exports swiftly, the well-placed source said.
The Iraqi oil ministry had invited the Association of the Petroleum Industry of Kurdistan (APIKUR), which consists of eight oil companies operating in the Kurdistan Region, and the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) natural resources ministry for a meeting in Baghdad on Tuesday. However, the meeting did not take place as scheduled, and an unannounced meeting was held on Saturday instead.
The companies also want assurances that payments under Iraq’s budget amendment - requiring Baghdad to pay $16 per barrel in production costs to the KRG - will be reliably distributed to the producers.
Oil exports from the Kurdistan Region through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline were halted in March 2023 after a Paris-based arbitration court ruled in favor of Baghdad against Ankara, saying the latter had violated a 1973 pipeline agreement by allowing Erbil to begin independent oil exports in 2014.
Updated at 4:46 pm
