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Kurds Have Not Agreed to Export Oil via Iraq’s SOMO

Kurdistan has not agreed to export crude via Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO), a spokesman for the autonomous region’s government said on Thursday, contradicting earlier comments by a top energy official in Baghdad. Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain al-Shahristani said in a televised interview late on Wednesday that the Kurds had agreed to export through SOMO, which would have removed a major sticking point between them over oil exports. Kurdistan’s prime minister and top energy official travelled to Baghdad earlier this week, intensifying efforts to settle the long-running dispute over exports of oil from the region via a new independent pipeline to Turkey. But Kurdistan Regional Government spokesman Safeen Dizayee said on Thursday that was not the case. "Absolutely we have not reached any agreement to export oil via SOMO. The dialogue and discussions are still underway". Dizayee described […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Kurds Say Have Not Agreed to Export Oil Via Iraq’s SOMO

Kurdistan has not agreed to export crude via Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO), a spokesman for the autonomous region’s government said on Thursday, contradicting earlier comments by a top energy official in Baghdad. Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain al-Shahristani said in a televised interview late on Wednesday that the Kurds had agreed to export through SOMO, which would have removed a major sticking point between them over oil exports. Kurdistan’s prime minister and top energy official travelled to Baghdad earlier this week, intensifying efforts to settle the long-running dispute over exports of oil from the region via a new independent pipeline to Turkey. But Kurdistan Regional Government spokesman Safeen Dizayee said on Thursday that was not the case. "Absolutely we have not reached any agreement to export oil via SOMO. The dialogue and discussions are still underway". Dizayee described […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Kurds Say Have Not Agreed to Export Oil Via Iraq's SOMO

Kurdistan has not agreed to export crude via Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO), a spokesman for the autonomous region’s government said on Thursday, contradicting earlier comments by a top energy official in Baghdad. Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain al-Shahristani said in a televised interview late on Wednesday that the Kurds had agreed to export through SOMO, which would have removed a major sticking point between them over oil exports. Kurdistan’s prime minister and top energy official travelled to Baghdad earlier this week, intensifying efforts to settle the long-running dispute over exports of oil from the region via a new independent pipeline to Turkey. But Kurdistan Regional Government spokesman Safeen Dizayee said on Thursday that was not the case. "Absolutely we have not reached any agreement to export oil via SOMO. The dialogue and discussions are still underway". Dizayee described […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Tensions rise as Iraqi Kurds’ oil flows to Turkey

As Iraqi Kurdistan exports oil northward to Turkey through its own pipeline despite dire warnings from Baghdad about the consequences of such independent action, the prospect of a collision between Iraq’s central government and the semiautonomous Kurds increases. But as parliamentary elections loom in April, with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki seeking a third term amid a swelling al-Qaida insurgency raging in western Iraq, Baghdad may not be in a position to get tough right now or pick a fight with the restive Kurds and their new ally Turkey. Analysts have long speculated that the likely outcome of the Kurds’ defiance is that they could eventually declare their enclave across Iraq’s three northern provinces an independent state. The fear is that other regions, particularly the south, which contains two-thirds of Iraq’s oil reserves of 143.1 billion barrels, will also want greater autonomy from a […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Tensions rise as Iraqi Kurds' oil flows to Turkey

As Iraqi Kurdistan exports oil northward to Turkey through its own pipeline despite dire warnings from Baghdad about the consequences of such independent action, the prospect of a collision between Iraq’s central government and the semiautonomous Kurds increases. But as parliamentary elections loom in April, with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki seeking a third term amid a swelling al-Qaida insurgency raging in western Iraq, Baghdad may not be in a position to get tough right now or pick a fight with the restive Kurds and their new ally Turkey. Analysts have long speculated that the likely outcome of the Kurds’ defiance is that they could eventually declare their enclave across Iraq’s three northern provinces an independent state. The fear is that other regions, particularly the south, which contains two-thirds of Iraq’s oil reserves of 143.1 billion barrels, will also want greater autonomy from a […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Kurdish exports stop, giving room for political talks

Unions representing the oil sector and other Iraqi workers are pressing Parliament to pass labor and union laws before their current session ends, measures that would end Saddam Hussein-era imposition on worker rights and go far toward addressing outstanding demands by workers of the state-owned South Oil Company (SOC) .

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oryx encouraged by Kurdish oil prospects

Henry Legarre, chief operating officer at Oryx Petroleum, said his company was encouraged by results of drilling operations in the Kurdish north of Iraq. Oryx, which has headquarters in Alberta, Canada, said it completed drilling an exploration well in the Banan prospect in the Kurdish region of Iraq. The company said a third-party survey of the prospect in 2013 put the prospective oil resources at 102 million barrels of oil. Its Demir Dagh appraisal well in the region should be completed during the second quarter of 2014. "Observations during drilling of all wells on the Demir Dagh structure continue to be encouraging," Legarre said in a statement Monday. Both wells are in the Hawler license area in the Kurdish north. The Korean National Oil Corp., a minority partner for Oryx at Hawler, announced in March it made an oil discovery at the site. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Kurds’ oil deal with Turkey ‘endangers Iraq’s budget’

The feud between Iraq’s central government and the minority Kurds’ semiautonomous enclave over oil is reaching critical mass, the head of parliament’s treasury committee says. Haidar Al Abadi, a senior legislator, has warned the government’s projected 2014 budget will fall apart if Kurdistan does not hand over revenue from independent oil exports to northern neighbor Turkey that began recently. Such action by the Kurdistan Regional Government, which is defying the Baghdad regime of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki by pursuing its own oil and gas exports outside the Oil Ministry’s control, will leave the central authority no option but to halt all state spending in the enclave. Kurdistan’s share amounts to around 17 percent of overall state expenditure. The loss of that revenue could be crippling, unless the KRG, which the federal government accuses of acting illegally, can generate enough income from oil sales to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Kurds' oil deal with Turkey 'endangers Iraq's budget'

The feud between Iraq’s central government and the minority Kurds’ semiautonomous enclave over oil is reaching critical mass, the head of parliament’s treasury committee says. Haidar Al Abadi, a senior legislator, has warned the government’s projected 2014 budget will fall apart if Kurdistan does not hand over revenue from independent oil exports to northern neighbor Turkey that began recently. Such action by the Kurdistan Regional Government, which is defying the Baghdad regime of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki by pursuing its own oil and gas exports outside the Oil Ministry’s control, will leave the central authority no option but to halt all state spending in the enclave. Kurdistan’s share amounts to around 17 percent of overall state expenditure. The loss of that revenue could be crippling, unless the KRG, which the federal government accuses of acting illegally, can generate enough income from oil sales to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple