ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani on Tuesday reiterated that his country is ready to resume the exportation of oil from Kirkuk and Kurdistan Region to Turkey, adding that Ankara has also expressed its readiness to resume the process. Oil exports through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline have been halted since March 23 when a Paris-based arbitration court ruled in favor of Baghdad against Ankara, saying the latter had breached a 1973 agreement by allowing Erbil to begin independent oil exports in 2014. “The Turkish side announced its readiness to resume the export of oil, just as we did but the oil production companies in the Region have to negotiate with the federal government regarding the contracts and production costs stated in the budget law which are not proportional to the real costs according to the contracts signed between these companies and the Regional Government,” said Sudani during a press briefing. “If this part is not resolved, these companies will delay the production. If this case is resolved and an agreement is reached, the companies have informed us that they could resume the production and then the export,” he added. The Association of the Petroleum Industry of Kurdistan (APIKUR) on October 11 said Erbil and Baghdad had lost seven billion dollars since the flow of oil from Kirkuk and the Kurdistan Region to Turkey was suspended in March. Safeen Dizayee, head of the Kurdistan Regional Government's Department of Foreign Relations, said late last month that Erbil and Baghdad had lost six billion dollars due to the halt in the flow of oil to Turkey. Turkey has said it is ready to resume the process. About 400,000 barrels of oil were being exported daily by Erbil through the pipeline which runs to the Turkish port of Ceyhan before the halt, in addition to some 75,000 barrels from Kirkuk oil fields controlled by the Iraqi government.
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