ARBIL: Oil exports from Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region have fallen to an average of below 30,000 barrels per day (b/d), industry sources said yesterday, a decline likely to worsen tensions between Baghdad and the Kurdish region.
The fall comes at a time of increasing friction between the Kurdish region and the central government in Baghdad, which has withheld payments to oil companies operating in the north as part of a wider dispute over petroleum rights.
Kurdistan has previously halted shipments of its oil in protest over what it said were overdue payments from Baghdad, but the reason for the current decline was not immediately clear. At their highest, Iraqi Kurdish oil exports reached around 200,000b/d.
“Exports are much lower than 30,000 now,” said one industry source on condition of anonymity.
Comment from the Kurdish ministry of natural resources was not immediately available.
Last week, Kurdish crude flow was cut by around 75,000 barrels per day due to a technical problem at the Khurmala oilfield, Iraqi oil sources said. That followed an earlier reduction to 100,000b/d.
In October, the Kurds agreed to export 250,000b/d in 2013 if Baghdad paid operators in the region. An initial sum of $650m was transferred by Baghdad to the Kurdistan regional government (KRG) in October, but a subsequent payment has not yet been made.
Baghdad rejects the deals signed between Kurdistan and oil companies including Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Total as illegal and has blacklisted some that have ventured into the northern region.
Kurdistan says its right to grant contracts to foreign companies is enshrined in the Iraqi constitution, which was drawn up following the 2003 invasion that ousted Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein.
The oil payment dispute is part of a broader debate between Baghdad and Kurdistan over control of oil and territories which is straining Iraq’s uneasy federal union one year after US troops left.
Reuters
