ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Officials from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the Federal Government of Iraq and representatives of international oil companies (IOCs) operating in the Kurdistan Region met in Erbil on Saturday to discuss the resumption of Kurdish oil exports, a KRG official stated.
The convening parties “explored the possibility of resuming oil exports from the Kurdistan Region with oil companies, and the viewpoints of oil investment companies on the matter,” said Umed Sabah, president of the Diwan of Council of Ministers, in a post on X.
However, a separate meeting that was set to be held in Baghdad on Saturday, between representatives of the Kurdistan Region’s natural resources ministry, the Iraqi oil ministry and IOCs was postponed at Baghdad’s request, Rudaw English has learned from a representative of an IOC operating in the Region.
On the same day, an Iraqi Oil Ministry spokesperson, Abdulsahib al-Hasnawi, confirmed to Rudaw that the Saturday meeting would not be held.
Earlier in the week, on Wednesday, Iraqi Oil Minister Hayyan Abdul Ghani had announced that “a delegation from the Kurdistan Region’s natural resources ministry would visit Baghdad on Saturday to complete the negotiation process” with his ministry on the resumption of Kurdish oil exports.
“We all hope to reach an agreement” to restart oil exports, the minister said.
Kurdish oil exports, through Turkey’s Ceyhan port, have been halted since March 2023. The suspension came after a Paris-based arbitration court ruled in favor of Baghdad that Ankara had violated a 1973 pipeline agreement by allowing Erbil to export oil independently.
In February, the Iraqi parliament passed amendments to the federal budget law, authorizing $16 per barrel in production and transportation costs for IOCs. The step was seen as crucial to restarting Kurdish oil exports. The amended budget law also set a 60-day deadline for the Iraqi government and the KRG to establish an international consultancy body to assess those costs.
Despite months of talks between Erbil, Baghdad, and IOCs, Kurdish oil exports have yet to resume.
Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani stated on Wednesday that Erbil has suffered losses exceeding $23 billion since the suspension of oil exports.
