On Thursday, Peshmerga of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) took control over the state-run North Oil Company (NOC) in Kirkuk. “Deployment of troops in Kirkuk is to show Baghdad, Kirkuk’s oil is for the people of Kirkuk,” said Aso Mamand, head of the PUK’s office in Kirkuk, on Thursday. “We have deployed troops to prevent Baghdad from exporting Kirkuk’s oil to Mosul and Baghdad. Baghdad wants to export Kirkuk’s oil for the rest of Iraq while our people are in desperate need for it.” Mohammed Osman, a veteran PUK Peshmerga and an Iraqi MP, told Rudaw that the PUK has the majority support of the people of Kirkuk. Local officials, however, say that using force to resolve problems will only exacerbate problems in the ethnically-diverse city. “Problems should be solved through understanding and talks,” said Fayeq Chomani, a Kurdish official. In the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) latest visit to Baghdad in 2016, it was agreed that the oil under Baghdad control in Kirkuk would be exported through the Kurdistan Region and half the revenue would go to the region. On February 20, the Iraqi oil ministry announced it signed a memorandum of understanding with Tehran to study the export of part of Kirkuk’s oil through a pipeline to Iran. Currently, Kirkuk oil is being exported to the world market through the Ceyhan port in Turkey. Two oilfields in Kirkuk are under the control of the KRG and three are run by Iraq’s the North Oil Company. The KRG exports 150,000 barrels of oil per day from Bai Hassan and Havana oilfields. The Iraqi government produces a similar number.
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