The increased price of crude oil, the value of the Iraqi dinar against the US dollar, transfer fees and problems at the border are hiking oil prices up in the Kurdistan Region, central Erbil's Mayor Nabaz Abdulhamid told Rudaw’s Sangar Abdulrahman on Thursday.
“The price of fuel in the world’s stock market has seen an increase; the price of crude oil has also increased,” Abdulhamid added, “In Erbil [province], we need more than 3 million liters daily … what comes in from the Haji Omaran [border with Iran] daily is more than 2 million liters. It’s been four days that this amount hasn’t entered.”
Abdulhamid also added that Kar Company, a private oil, gas and electricity company based in Erbil that operates in Iraq and a number of foreign countries, has the capability of producing fuel for all the Kurdistan Region, but can’t produce the amount the Region needs due to a lack of crude oil.
The exchange rate of the Iraqi dinar was pushed up to 1,450 dinars per US dollar late 2020, a plan by the federal government reportedly as part of a draft 2021 budget.
Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said in a press conference on Wednesday that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is in talks with production companies to reduce the cost of oil production in an effort to boost Erbil’s revenues.
The Region produces an average of 450,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd), according to the PM, with 25,000 of this amount for local use.
Sarbaz Karim, an oil businessman, told Rudaw’s Farhad Dolamari on Thursday that the price of oil imported from Iran has shot up by $80 per ton, from $430 to $510.
“Eighty dollars is a lot for the people,” Karim said.
