ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq reiterated on Monday its commitment to an OPEC+ agreement on production cuts and the gradual phase-out of voluntary reductions, ahead of the resumption of oil exports from the Kurdistan Region. “The Iraqi oil ministry affirms its full commitment to the OPEC+ agreement," stated a ministry release, adding that "Iraq's crude oil production in January 2025 reached 3.9 million barrels per day,” reflecting “Iraq's commitment to the agreed production levels." OPEC+ is a coalition of 23 major oil-exporting nations, formed in 2016 to better manage the global oil supply and stabilize prices. The group accounts for about 40 percent of the world's oil production and holds the vast majority of global oil reserves. As OPEC’s second-largest oil producer after Saudi Arabia, Iraq has been reducing its crude exports to comply with its OPEC+ quota. The OPEC+ production cuts aim to influence global oil supply and stabilize prices. The Iraqi oil ministry also confirmed that it “will continue efforts to compensate for the accumulated surplus,” as the federal government expects to receive “oil produced in the Kurdistan Region” once “exports via the Iraqi-Turkish pipeline are resumed.” The ministry reiterated Iraq’s adherence to the OPEC’s “voluntary reduction agreements and the required compensation amounts." Oil exports from the Kurdistan Region via the Iraq-Turkey pipeline were suspended in March 2023 following a ruling by a Paris-based arbitration court, which sided with Baghdad. The court determined that Ankara violated a 1973 pipeline agreement by allowing Erbil to export oil independently since 2014. Before the suspension, Erbil was exporting approximately 400,000 barrels of oil per day via the Iraq-Turkey pipeline, in addition to around 75,000 barrels of oil from Kirkuk. On Sunday, Mohammed Khudair, the ministry’s undersecretary, told Iraqi state media that “the available export quantity in the [Kurdistan] Region is 300,000 barrels per day, with a portion allocated for domestic consumption and the remaining 185,000 barrels allocated for export.” Khudair added that Iraq was awaiting Turkey’s response, “within the next 24 hours,” regarding the readiness of the pipeline designated for the Kurdistan Region’s oil exports. Meanwhile, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) announced on Sunday that it had reached an agreement with the Iraqi federal government to restart oil exports from the region.
