Iraq, Kurdistan Agree To Restart Exports From Northern Oil Fields

DOHA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th April, 2023) The Iraqi prime minister and the leader of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region announced a deal on Tuesday to restart Kurdish oil exports to Turkey.

"Technical committees will speed up the implementation of this agreement. The halt in oil exports to Turkey is hurting Kurdistan as much as the rest of Iraq," Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani told a news conference alongside Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani.

Prime Minister al-Sudani said the pact would be in place until his country passes a new budget bill and a hydrocrabons bill, which Baghdad and Erbil are negotiating to split revenues from oil and gas sales.

Baghdad and Iraqi Kurdistan have long been at odds over how revenues generated by oil and gas exports from the resources-rich Kurdish-majority territories should be shared between them.

Iraq stopped exporting crude from the northern territory to Turkey on March 25 after winning an arbitration case against its northern neighbor, who Baghdad said was buying oil directly from Kurdistan in violation of contracts. Two days later, the Iraqi and Kurdish legislatures agreed to draft a hydrocarbons bill to end the decades' old dispute.