Iraq’s oil minister and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) natural resources minister on Sunday stressed the need to restart the Region’s oil production and exports, nearly eight months after the process was put on hold.KRG Natural Resources Minister Kamal Muhammad Salih received Iraqi Oil Minister Hayyan Abdul Ghani and his accompanying delegation from the oil ministry, including Undersecretary for Extraction Affairs Basim Mohammed Khudair, and Undersecretary for Distribution Affairs Ali Maarij al-Bahadli, in the Kurdish capital of Erbil.The visit of the Iraqi delegation is the continuation of discussions between the two sides aimed at resuming the Kurdistan Region’s oil exports, “considering its importance in supplementing the federal budget with financial revenues,” according to a statement from the oil ministry.“Abdul Ghani highlighted the [federal] government’s keenness on finding the appropriate mechanisms to resume production and export from the Region’s fields,” read the statement.The federal government delegation will spend two or three days in the Kurdistan Region’s capital, according to KRG spokesperson Peshawa Hawramani. Abdul Ghani stated that he will also meet with several other top officials in Erbil.Exports of Kurdistan Region’s oil through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline have been halted since March 23 when a Paris-based arbitration court ruled in favor of Baghdad against Ankara, saying Turkey had breached a 1973 agreement by allowing Erbil to begin independent oil exports in 2014.Erbil and Baghdad have held multiple rounds of talks about restarting the exports. Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani last week said the problem now is technical rather than political. Areas where they still need to reach an agreement include existing contracts between the KRG and oil companies, according to Barzani.Representatives of the Iraqi government and oil companies operating in the Kurdistan Region on Wednesday held their first meeting in Dubai, stressing the need to resume full oil production and exports “under mutually acceptable commercial terms,” the oil producers association stated.Article 13 of the Iraqi federal budget obliges the Kurdistan Region to hand over, on a daily basis, at least 400,000 barrels of crude oil to Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) to be exported through Turkey’s Ceyhan port, or be used domestically in case it is not exported. (ICE AMMAN)

Fonte notizia: Stampa Locale