PM Barzani hopes to double gas production in two years

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said Wednesday that his cabinet has increased gas production over the last two years and hopes to double this in his remaining two years in office.

Speaking at the Middle East Research Institute (MERI) forum in Erbil, Barzani said that it is his agenda to make use of all the natural resources available in the Kurdistan Region, including natural gas. 

He said that his cabinet has been able to increase natural gas production since its inauguration in summer 2019. “We hope that within the next two years this will double.”

“We are planning to build the pipeline, and what we are trying in this cabinet is to use most of the natural resources internally because there are so many areas and demands that unfortunately have not been utilized,” PM Barzani said at the forum.  

“My ambition is really to provide gas for the households. My plan is to build petrochemicals so that we can actually be clients and buyers of our own gas and natural resources, and then process it. That would be much more beneficial to the people of Kurdistan and for the excess gas and the natural resources that we have to be able to export it to outside,” he added. 

The Kurdistan Region is currently producing natural gas at its Khor Mor field and is looking to develop additional fields. Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) minister of natural resources, Kamal Atroshi, told Rudaw in August that the government has banned gas flaring.

Atroshi also detailed efforts to develop the natural gas sector and reserves of about 25 trillion cubic feet, which will require a lot of investment as much of the gas contains highly toxic hydrogen sulfide that will have to be removed.

Iraqi electricity minister Adil Karim told Rudaw late September that Baghdad hopes to come to an agreement “with the KRG to provide a portion of the gas for Iraq’s system, whether it’s through an agreement or buying it or some other way.”

Iraq suffers from chronic electricity shortages, caused by multiple factors including poor government delivery of services, rampant corruption, and terror attacks on the power grid. 

Barzani said at the forum that the KRG can sell its gas to federal-controlled areas as an alternative source of energy. “Also we have good relations with Turkey that has been supportive in exporting the oil of Kurdistan [Region] to the rest of the world - and that would be another avenue for Kurdistan as well.”

KRG has been suffering from a financial crisis, and is in need of increasing its revenue to be able to pay its civil servants in full and on time. 

Iraq, KRG must tackle roots of ISIS

The Islamic State (ISIS) took control of swathes of Iraqi territory in 2014 but it was territorially defeated in the country three years later. However, the group continues to pose a threat by carrying out hit-and-run attacks, bombings and kidnapping people. The militants have exploited the security gap in areas disputed by Erbil and Baghdad. Both governments have decided to form joint military units to be deployed to unpopulated areas in these disputed territories. 

“ISIS remains to be a main threat to the security of not only Kurdistan [Region] and Iraq but the region and the world. ISIS has not been completely defeated. They have lost territory but they are there. They are still able to recruit people, conduct operations against Iraqi security forces, against us in some cases, there have been attacks against Peshmerga especially in the disputed territories,” said PM Barzani.

“We are concerned about the security situation in general but I’d like to shed light on a very important point: ISIS is the byproduct of some other problems. ISIS is not the main problem. Whenever you have terrorism, you have other problems that gives way to terrorism to grow - and that is injustice, inequality, poverty, [and] corruption. All of these give ISIS and other terrorist organizations [an opportunity] to exploit the situation, to recruit more people and to be able to operate,” he added. 

PM Barzani suggested that in addition to military operations the Iraqi government and KRG have to look for root causes that led to the emergence of ISIS in order to tackle the issue of terrorism. 

“The federal government and all of us have to focus on how we can end injustice, how we can end inequality, how we can provide an environment [or] a situation where people are feeling free and comfortable to live without really looking for an alternative element or group to retaliate against something that they don’t like” he said, adding that they have provided suggestions to Baghdad on how to address the matter. 

“There have been some improvements in closing the gap, especially in disputed territories where there was no security presence from the federal government and Peshmerga because of some political reasons that are known to all of us,” said Barzani, referring to the planned formation of joint forces by the Iraqi army and Peshmerga. 

The Ministry of Peshmerga announced in July that talks are ongoing about the formation of two joint brigades of Iraqi and Peshmerga forces to counter ISIS remnants in disputed areas.

“Peshmerga forces will be transferred to these brigades and become part of the Iraqi forces. They will no longer remain as Peshmerga but be affiliated to Iraqi Armed Forces Command. The force that will be formed will include Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen and other groups. It is not a Kurdish or Arab force,” Secretary-General of the Ministry of Peshmerga Jabar Yawar told Rudaw English in mid-September.

PKK-Turkey conflict

PM Barzani said his government has a “multifaceted” relationship with neighboring Turkey.

“Our relationship with Turkey is multifaceted. There are many levels of relations that we have with Turkey. We have trade with Turkey, we are neighbors, we have joint security concerns, and this relationship has been beneficial to both sides,” he said.
 
Ankara launched land and air military campaigns against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province late April, causing destruction and evacuation in tens of villages. The KRG has said several times that the presence of the PKK has given an excuse to Turkey to attack the Region.

The PKK is an armed group struggling for the increased political and cultural rights of Kurds in Turkey. Ankara considers it a terrorist organization and carries out military operations against it at home and in northeast Syria (Rojava) and the Kurdistan Region.

The KRG, dominated by PKK’s rival Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), has had thorny relations with the group since the establishment of the Kurdish government in the nineties when the KDP-PKK tensions resulted in armed clashes.

“The presence of the PKK in our territories is a sensitive issue to Iraq, as the violation of Iraqi sovereignty. A foreign element coming to this country should not have been accepted to begin with. PKK did not come here as refugees, they came and presented themselves as alternatives to the legitimate institutions that have been elected by people to run and govern this area,” PM Barzani said at the forum.


He added that the PKK-Turkey conflict has caused damage to some 800 villages in the Kurdistan Region. 

Asked if the KRG is willing to create peace between the PKK and Turkey, PM Barzani said they do not want to intervene in the internal affairs of Turkey and play such a role “unless invited to do so.”

The presence of the PKK and groups affiliated to it in the disputed district of Shingal has further escalated the organization’s tensions with the KRG. 

Erbil and Baghdad reached an agreement in October 2020 over the governance and security of Shingal, in Nineveh province, to resolve a number of issues preventing displaced people of Shingal from returning to the area. Under the agreement, security for the troubled region will be Baghdad's responsibility. The federal government said it would establish a new armed force recruited from the local population and expel fighters affiliated to the PKK. 

The KRG premier said the agreement has not been implemented, blaming the PKK for creating obstacles. If the agreement is implemented with Baghdad, it “could have been really a gateway to the rest of the disputed territories. It was not implemented because elements controlling Sinjar [Shingal] were even challenging the federal government in Baghdad,” he said.

Among the other issues PM Barzani shed light on were his cabinet’s efforts to privatize some sectors, including the electricity and agriculture spheres. 

He said the privatization of electricity has “reduced the cost of electricity but increased the hours of electricity given.” 

Privatization has helped us continue investment. We’re in talks to privatize the electricity sector. New public-private partnerships — to build agro-food industries in each province are underway. This supports our farmers and their produce in the long-run.

— Masrour Barzani (@masrour_barzani) October 27, 2021

“Privatization has helped us continue investment. We’re in talks to privatize the electricity sector. New public-private partnerships — to build agro-food industries in each province are underway. This supports our farmers and their produce in the long-run,” he later said in a tweet. 

Barzani also said that they are trying to increase local food production and exports. “We have been in discussion with some of our friends, neighboring countries [and] in Europe in some of my visits to find an open market for Kurdistan’s [Region] products and that’s also a process that is ongoing and I am glad to say that it has been successful in some areas.”  

The premier also said that they have been able to reduce the level of corruption in the Kurdistan Region to “a great deal.”

“I can’t say that it has been eliminated - it is a long process. And unfortunately, there are influential people that have been challenging the government, not allowing the government to go as planned but I am very determined that we are going to insist on minimizing corruption.”

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