The meeting is set to take place at the Iraqi oil ministry’s headquarters in Baghdad at 1 pm local time.
A representative from one of the international oil companies invited to the meeting told Rudaw English, on the condition of anonymity, that a senior US official from the American embassy in Baghdad is set to attend, noting that Washington is increasingly pressuring Baghdad to resume Kurdish oil exports swiftly.
Another well-placed source from the Association of the Petroleum Industry of Kurdistan (APIKUR) and a senior official from the Iraqi oil ministry confirmed the time of the meeting to Rudaw English.
The Iraqi oil ministry had invited APIKUR, which consists of eight oil companies operating in the Kurdistan Region, and the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) natural resources ministry for a meeting in Baghdad on Tuesday. However, the meeting did not take place as scheduled, and an unannounced meeting was held on Saturday instead.
Myles Caggins, spokesperson for APIKUR, told Rudaw English on Tuesday that they were not too concerned about the postponement of the meeting, suggesting that a second meeting might take place on Thursday.
“APIKUR welcomes any meeting that involves all stakeholders [and] that will finalize all necessary agreements for oil exports to resume,” he stated.
The companies also want assurances that payments under Iraq’s budget amendment - requiring Baghdad to pay $16 per barrel in production costs to the KRG - will be reliably distributed to the producers.
Oil exports from the Kurdistan Region through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline were halted in March 2023 after a Paris-based arbitration court ruled in favor of Baghdad against Ankara, saying the latter had violated a 1973 pipeline agreement by allowing Erbil to begin independent oil exports in 2014.
