“There is no agreement between the oil derivatives department from the Iraqi Oil Ministry with the Kurdistan Region to send gasoline and diesel to them,” Ali Sabah, told Rudaw.
“The amount we possess does not suffice even for us and we cannot send gasoline to any other place.”
In Iraq, the government controls the petrol stations where gas is sold at 450 dinars per litre ($0.38). The Kurdistan Region has a free market system and petrol currently costs at least 600 dinars per litre. The KRG takes a 50 dinar per litre tax.
The governor of Sulaimani said recently he had discussed the supplement of petrol to the province with Baghdad authorities in a bid to alleviate the rising price of fuel in the Region.
The Iraqi government has already agreed to send heating oil for all provinces of the Kurdistan Region.
Baghdad sends the Kurdistan Region a limited portion of heating oil as part of the Region’s share for the winter season, Sabah said.
A small portion of gasoline and diesel will be sent to refugees and IDPs as part of Baghdad’s assistance programmes for those living in camps, he added.
Kurdistan Region citizens have not been given their annual barrel of heating oil recently due to financial crisis. The Iraqi government stopped sending it after relations collapsed in 2014, following the KRG’s decision to export oil independent of Baghdad and central government halting salaries for civil servants.
Baghdad and Erbil have worked to improve relations since the events of October 16. The Kurdistan Region received a 12.67 percent share of the federal budget — short of the desired 17 percent, but better than nil, which they had been receiving.
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