ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Thursday said the federal government added a new condition to a newly signed financial and oil agreement, further delaying salary payments to the Region’s public servants, now overdue by nearly three months.
“After we agreed to the agreement and negotiated on the proposals… they added another point,” Barzani said during a speech in Erbil. He added that Baghdad now requires the Region to deliver 230,000 barrels of oil per day before releasing salary payments.
Barzani’s remarks come just days after Iraq’s Council of Ministers approved a new deal to resume salary payments and restart Kurdish oil exports. Under the agreement, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) must export its entire oil output through Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO), keeping 50,000 barrels daily for local use. In return, Baghdad is expected to make budget transfers and provide refined fuel if needed. The KRG is also obligated to hand over 120 billion Iraqi dinars (nearly $92 million) in non-oil revenues monthly for May.
“Until the 230,000 barrels are received, salaries will not be paid,” Barzani said, criticizing the move as unfair given repeated drone attacks that have disrupted oil production. “On the other hand, those terrorists come and blow up our fields and don't allow oil production, so how can this work?”
Since the deal was announced, drone attacks on the Kurdistan Region appear to have ceased. At least 18 strikes were recorded in July, most targeting oil fields operated by international companies. On Wednesday, two more strikes hit oil installations in Duhok province, prompting DNO to suspend operations at Tawke and Gulf Keystone to halt work at Shekhan as a precaution, according to the Erbil-based Counter Terrorism Directorate (CTD).
Narmin Maarouf, a Kurdish member of Iraqi parliament’s finance committee, told Rudaw on Sunday that Baghdad remains firm in its decision not to transfer funds to Erbil for May salaries until the agreed-upon amount of oil and non-oil revenues is delivered.
The KRG blames the attacks on Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an accusation Baghdad rejects. Aziz Ahmad, deputy chief of staff to Barzani, said Wednesday that drone attacks by “criminal militias on the Iraqi government payroll” have cost the Region nearly 200,000 barrels in lost production. He said on Saturday that some of the attacks were launched from Kirkuk province.
Barzani also accused the federal government of obstructing regional development by imposing sweeping control over both oil and non-oil revenue.
“They say you shouldn't have any kind of income at all, nothing at all, whatever you have, hand it over to us, so that these kinds of projects cannot be implemented by us,” Barzani said during the inauguration of a major freshwater supply project in Erbil, set to serve 33 neighborhoods for the next three decades.
The remarks come as the KRG expands its Runaki initiative, which aims to deliver 24-hour electricity across the Region by 2026. Over two million people are already connected.
Meanwhile, Iraq is grappling with its worst water crisis in 80 years, driven by drought and upstream dams in Turkey and Iran that have depleted the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
In a related development, Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court on Sunday dismissed two lawsuits filed by lawmakers seeking to annul multi-billion-dollar gas deals signed in May between the KRG and US companies HKN Energy and WesternZagros - a cornerstone of the Region’s energy and electricity plans.
