Erbil and Baghdad have held numerous meetings since a ruling by a Paris-based arbitration court last March suspended the flow of Kurdish oil to international markets. International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in the Kurdistan Region have not been invited to most of the talks.
“The purpose of the meeting is to update you regarding the progress of the negotiations with the Federal Government of Iraq in matters that concern you and other IOC partners. The amendments of the 2023 budget law and the subject of compensation for the IOC’s entitlements will be the main topics of the discussion. We will welcome your insights and suggestions during these discussions,” read an email sent to the IOCs by the ministry and which Rudaw English has seen.
Myles Caggins, spokesperson for the Association of the Petroleum Industry of Kurdistan (APIKUR), an umbrella group of oil companies operating in the Kurdistan Region, confirmed to Rudaw English that the companies are looking forward to the discussion.
“APIKUR member companies look forward to continued progress and discussions to resume full oil production and exports to global markets,” he said.
In December, APIKUR said that it had been excluded from negotiations between the KRG and Baghdad. “APIKUR member companies - which represent the majority of the oil produced by IOCs in Kurdistan - have neither been included in these meetings nor been invited to participate in any future meetings between the KRG and GoI [Government of Iraq],” it stated.
Exports of the Kurdistan Region’s oil through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline have been halted since March 23 when the Paris-based arbitration court ruled in favor of Baghdad against Ankara, saying Turkey had breached a 1973 agreement by allowing Erbil to begin independent oil exports in 2014.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani told Bloomberg last week that the main obstacle before the resumption of the oil exports is that the IOCs “have an issue with the cost of producing barrels.”
Before the halt, around 400,000 barrels a day were being exported by Erbil through Ankara, in addition to some 75,000 barrels of Kirkuk’s oil.
The loss in oil revenues, the KRG’s main source of income, has worsened the financial situation and left the government unable to pay its public sector without assistance from Baghdad.
