Minister: Kurdish oil exports to Turkey to resume next week

PanARMENIAN.Net - The natural resources minister of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, Ashti Hawrami, said that exports by truck to Turkey should resume next week, Today’s Zaman reported.

The minister said the exports will rise to around 20,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude and 10,000-15,000 bpd of condensate initially.

Hawrami said no Kurdish oil has left the autonomous region for a while, as Baghdad had reneged on payments that it was expected to make to operators of oilfields.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) stopped contributing exports to Iraq's pipeline from Kirkuk in the north to the Turkish port of Ceyhan in December.

"Currently nothing is going through the main pipeline, and has [not been] for a while," Hawrami told reporters at a conference in London.

He added that the exports would begin with a limited amount of condensate - a very light oil - and maybe some crude oil as a top-up.

The minister also said that Kurdistan is negotiating with two or three major international companies to operate oilfields and expects to announce the outcome in about a month, in a move likely to further heighten tensions with Baghdad.