ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region’s oil exports will resume this week as only technicalities remain to implement an agreement between Erbil and Baghdad, Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani said on Monday, weeks after exports were halted due to an arbitration court ruling.
“Today or tomorrow, we will go to sign the agreements with SOMO and the oil companies to resume exports,” Sudani told Rudaw’s Mohammed Sheikh Fatih in a sit-down with journalists in Baghdad.
“It is possible [within this week to resume oil exports],” he added.
In March, a Paris-based arbitration court ruled in favour of Iraq against Turkey, regarding exports of Kurdistan Region oil through Turkey’s Ceyhan port. The decision was followed by an immediate stoppage of Kurdish oil exports, which forced oil companies to halt their operations in the Kurdistan Region. On April 4, Erbil and Baghdad signed a temporary agreement to get the oil flowing again.
Iraq Parliament’s Second Deputy Speaker, Shakhawan Abdullah, told Rudaw on Sunday after a meeting with Sudani that Kurdistan Region’s oil exports are expected to resume in the next few days.
Abdullah said Baghdad had been awaiting a response from Ankara to resume the exports, noting that “there are no more obstacles.”
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is heavily reliant on revenues from its oil exports and an extended inability to sell its crude will severely impact its economy. In an economic crisis caused by volatile oil prices, the war with the Islamic State (ISIS), and budget disputes with Baghdad, the KRG has struggled for years to pay over a million civil servants on time and in full.
Sudani on Monday said Baghdad is committed to ensuring the KRG’s salaries are paid. “We are responsible, it is the federal governments duty to pay the salaries of federal Iraq and Kurdistan region,” he said.
