ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is in ongoing meetings with Iraq’s finance ministry to discuss budget issues and oil exports, with the two set to meet again on Friday. “The federal finance ministry sent a delegation to the Kurdistan Region. The delegation is still there and they will finish in a few days. Our second meeting is on Friday,” Hussein said during a conference at the Naram-Sin Foundation for Dialogue on Monday. Erbil and Baghdad have held several meetings to discuss amendments to Iraq’s previously approved 2025 budget law and address obstacles to paying the Kurdistan Region’s civil servant salaries. During the conference, Hussein told Rudaw’s Ziyad Ismail that a KRG delegation met with Iraq’s finance ministry at his house to discuss pending salary and oil export issues. “We had a good understanding. The [federal] finance ministry wanted some information,” he said. The KRG has struggled to pay the salaries of its civil servants on time and in full for a decade due to a financial crisis that further deteriorated after the oil export halt. Erbil is reliant on its local income and federal budget funds. Changes in the law, which include an increase in the amount producing companies make from producing oil in the Kurdistan Region, could lead to the resumption of Kurdish oil exports. In November, the Iraqi government approved a proposal to amend articles from the federal budget to authorize compensation to companies operating in the Kurdistan Region for oil production and transportation costs, setting the rate at $16 per barrel. The proposal has had its first and second reading in the Iraqi legislature but has not been passed yet. The move was welcomed by the KRG and producing oil companies. Hussein said that the federal government and the KRG, along with international oil companies (IOCs), have reached a written agreement. He added that Iraq’s Council of Ministers has approved the agreement and sent it to parliament for inclusion in the budget law. According to Hussein, the proposed text would pave the way for the resumption of oil exports if it is incorporated. Oil exports from the Kurdistan Region through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline have been suspended since March 2023 after a Paris-based arbitration court ruled in favor of Baghdad over Ankara, saying the latter had breached a 1973 pipeline agreement by allowing Erbil to export oil independently since 2014. Hussein added that during his meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Sunday, they discussed the Kurdistan Region’s oil exports. "I told him that it was related to the budget law. If parliament votes on it, then oil would be exported again,” he said.
