Erbil, Baghdad discuss new oil exportation mechanisms

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A delegation from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) arrived in Baghdad on Sunday to discuss upcoming steps and mechanisms of exporting the Region’s oil with the Iraqi oil ministry, following a decision from an arbitration court against Erbil’s independent oil exports.

The International Chamber of Commerce in Paris on Thursday ruled in favor of the Iraqi federal government against Turkey with respect to the KRG’s oil exports through Turkey’s Ceyhan port.

The meeting in Baghdad was headed Iraqi Oil Minister Hayyan Abdul Ghani, and attended by the KRG’s acting Natural Resources Minister Kamal Mohammed, in addition to a number of top officials in relevant positions from both sides.

A statement from the Iraqi oil ministry said that the meeting discussed “the new mechanisms and data” relating to the Kurdistan Region’s oil exports, without providing further detail.

"We are not against the Kurdistan Region being given its rights, whether in the budget or in oil. The constitution says that oil belongs to all Iraqis and the Kurdish people are part of the sons of this country," Bassem al-Gharibawi, member of the Iraqi oil and gas committee, told Rudaw’s Halkawt Aziz, adding "there must be compliance with the laws and the constitution, and the management of the oil topic must be in the hands of the federal government.”

The exportation of the Kurdistan Region’s oil has been put on hold since Saturday, according to Assim Jihad, spokesperson for the Iraqi oil ministry.

Nahro Mahmoud, a Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) MP and member of the Iraqi oil and gas committee, told Rudaw after the meeting that the exportation of the Kurdistan Region’s oil through Turkey will “definitely” resume in the upcoming days, saying that the pause harms the Iraqi federal government as well.

The arbitration court ruled that Ankara had breached a 1973 pipeline agreement between Iraq and Turkey that obliges the Turkish government to abide by instructions issued by Iraq regarding the transport of crude oil exported from Iraq. In 2014, the KRG began using the pipeline to send its crude oil to Turkey’s Ceyhan port, to the ire of Baghdad.

The Kurdish government is heavily reliant on oil revenues and an inability to export crude oil will severely affect its already struggling economy. The government has failed for years to pay its civil servants on time and in full.