KRG ‘ready’ to hand over 250,000 barrels of Kurdistan Region oil to SOMO: Qubad Talabani

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is ready to hand over oil to Baghdad, Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani said following a meeting with the Kurdistan Region parliament on Monday. 

"If the budget is approved, we, as the KRG, are ready to deliver 250,000 barrels per day of Kurdistan Region oil through SOMO [State Organization of Marketing of Oil]," Talabani said following a four-hour parliament meeting, adding that the KRG has “always wanted to reach a comprehensive agreement with the federal government.”

Talabani led a KRG delegation to Baghdad at the beginning of December amid heightened tensions between Erbil and the federal government over budget disputes. 

On December 22, Talabani announced Erbil and Baghdad had reached a deal on Iraq’s Federal Budget Bill for 2021 that “keeps the common interest of all Iraqi people, including the people of Kurdistan Region.”

Talabani said that the KRG’s share of the budget is the same as in 2019 - at 12.67 percent - "less than what we expected and deserve.”

Erbil MPs spoke to Rudaw following Monday's meeting, saying not all in Baghdad are supportive of a deal with the KRG.

"One of their intentions is the intent of the Iraqi government, which has not been hidden, which is to have a solution,” Omed Khoshnaw, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) parliamentary bloc said in an Monday interview with Rudaw's Sangar Abdulrahman.

“But where does the great danger begin? The parliament.”

“Some Iraqi parliamentarians have spoken harshly about the Kurdistan Region and threatened it, and a small group has been on the side of peace,” MP Peshawa Hawrami told Rudaw.

“Iraq is divided into two parts, one strong and one weak, the strong front is against everything in the Kurdistan Region,” he added.

The Kurdistan Region’s allocation of the federal budget has been a point of contention with Baghdad. Iraq has not sent the autonomous region money for several months of 2020 amid oil disputes, preventing the KRG from paying the salaries of its public servants.

The already-existing budget dispute between the two governments was further complicated on November 12 when Iraqi MPs passed the Fiscal Deficit Coverage Bill to approve loans for civil servant salaries in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region for the last two months of this year.

The bill passed with a majority vote, despite a walk-out staged by Kurdish MPs, who were angered that Erbil is obliged to hand over an unspecified amount of oil in exchange for funds- a clause they say was not in the original bill. 

The agreement comes as Iraq and the Kurdistan Region plunge further into economic crisis. KRG civil servants have gone unpaid for much of this year as a result of the budget disputes – prompting protests earlier this month across Sulaimani, Halabja and the Garmyian administration in which ten people were killed.