“No time frame has been set yet,” said Oil Minister Jabbar al-Luaibi in an interview with Iraq’s al-Mirbad radio. “It is predicted that the talks will be held in the next few days.”
When talks do take place, Luaibi said he anticipates they will be fruitful and positive.
The oil and gas issue has been one of the major factors behind strained and deteriorating relations between Erbil and Baghdad over the course of the past ten years, despite numerous talks.
Baghdad is opposed to the Kurdistan Region independently exporting its oil and gas and the two governments have had disagreements over disputed Kirkuk’s oil.
Oilfields in Kirkuk, which had been operated by the Kurdistan Region since 2014 after Kurdish forces secured the province in the face of ISIS advances, fell to the Iraqi government on October 16 after Peshmerga pulled out their troops and Iraqi forces and Shiite militias moved in.
The two governments have disputed Kurdistan’s oil exports, with Baghdad claiming the KRG is exporting enough oil to meet its expenses.
The KRG hired Deloitte to conduct an audit of its oil and gas sector.
On Friday evening, KRG’s Ministry of Natural Resources tweeted figures, subject to audit, of its oil exports for the last four months of 2017, showing a dramatic drop in exports after losing Kirkuk.
KRG oil export volumes (subject to audit):
— KRG-MNR (@MNRKurdistan) January 5, 2018
2017 average: 445,301 bpd
Sep: 514,051 bpd
Oct: 384,659 bpd
Nov: 252,301 bpd
Dec: 263,542 bpd
The KRG has on many occasions expressed willingness to begin talks with Baghdad to resolve their outstanding issues and international allies, including Germany and France, threw their support behind Kurdish calls for talks within the framework of the Iraqi constitution.
The past few days have seen the first real progress as technical delegations from Erbil and Baghdad have met in both capitals, largely discussing the matter of the central government paying the KRG’s civil servant salaries. Baghdad requested the employee lists of the health and education ministries to audit them in order to start sending their salaries.
Delegations from three opposition parties, Gorran, the Islamic Group (Komal), and the newly founded Coalition for Democracy and Justice (CDJ), visited Baghdad on Thursday. Bafel Talabani, the eldest son of the late Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and an influential member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), separately visited the Iraqi capital on the same day.
Both held talks with senior Baghdad officials, including Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.
