According to the amendment, international oil companies (IOCs) in the Kurdistan Region will receive $16 per barrel for oil production and transportation and the oil will be exported through Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO), Bryar Rashid, a Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) lawmaker in the Iraqi parliament, told Rudaw.
Oil exports from the Kurdistan Region through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline have been suspended since March 2023 after a Paris-based arbitration court ruled in favor of Baghdad against Ankara, saying the latter had violated a 1973 pipeline agreement by allowing Erbil to begin independent oil exports in 2014.
“Thank God, today the parliament voted on amending the budget law. There are no excuses left to resume the Region’s oil exports and not to send the Region’s budget,” Shakhawan Abdullah, second deputy speaker of the Iraqi parliament, said in a Facebook post.
In November, the Iraqi government approved a proposal to amend articles from the federal budget to authorize compensation to IOCs in the Kurdistan Region for oil production and transportation costs, setting the rate at $16 per barrel.
The move was welcomed by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the IOCs.
Erbil and Baghdad have held several meetings to discuss amendments to Iraq’s previously approved 2025 budget law and address obstacles to paying the Kurdistan Region’s civil servant salaries.
The KRG has struggled to pay the salaries of its civil servants on time and in full for a decade due to a financial crisis that further deteriorated after the oil export halt. Erbil is reliant on its local income and federal budget funds.